Promise of the Heart
by cyberdemon
Summary: Complete. After the defeat of the deathsaurer, Van disappeared leaving Fiona with a promise. Now 4 years later strange things start to happen and the question on everyone's mind is where is Van? VF
1. the promise

It all seemed like it was merely a dream as the remains of Zoid Eve sunk into the ground once again. They had done it, they had finished what they had originally set out to do, which was to retrieve Fiona's memory and find Zoid Eve.  
  
People were celebrating all around them. They were all happy that it was all over. Both the deathstinger and the deathsaurer were truly gone thanks to Van and both the republic and the empire were safe once again.  
  
Not everyone was completely happy though. Fiona found herself on the deck of the ultrasaurus staring out at the valley of the rarehertz out in the distance. She had no idea why she wasn't happy. She had regained her memory, and defeated the deathsaurer with the help of Van and the others. Instead of happy all she felt was empty. It was like now she had no purpose in her life. Before she looked for the zoids eve as her life but now she didn't know what to do.  
  
"Something wrong?' came Van's voice which startled Fiona greatly because she didn't even hear him coming. "Why aren't you inside celebrating with all of the others?" asked Van as he leaned against the railing right next to Fiona.  
  
Fiona merely shrugged her shoulders. She stared at Van as he looked over the land around them. "What is my purpose Van? What can I do now that I no longer have a purpose to live by? Ever since you woke me up from the capsule my purpose has been to find zoids eve and regain my memories. I have accomplished both of those tasks and now I feel useless," said Fiona in quiet tone.  
  
Van was slightly surprised by Fiona's confession. To tell the truth he had really not thought about something like that happening when they found zoids eve. He did however know an answer that he hoped would help Fiona. "You can do whatever you want now. You are a very capable woman that can do anything that she sets her mind to. You could continue to study ruins with dr. d or you could possibly start a family. What you do with you life now is completely up to you. I am more than likely going to stay in the military to protect the people much like my father did when I was young," said Van as he turned around and laid his back against the railing with his arms crossed across his chest.  
  
Fiona looked at Van and saw an expression on his face like something was bothering him at that moment. "Is something wrong Van? You look a bit troubled. Is there anything that I could possibly do to help?" asked Fiona as she moved a little closer to him until she was right by his side.  
  
Van turned his head to look at Fiona with the same look that he held mere moments before. "You scared me Fiona," whispered Van. He turned his head and saw the confused look on Fiona's face. "Fiona, I need to ask you a question and I want you to be completely honest with me," said Van as he stared at Fiona with a pleading look on his face. He saw Fiona give a little nod. "Back in the zoids eve, were you really planning to kill yourself to stop the deathsaurer?" asked Van with a sad look on his face.  
  
Fiona was scared to answer him so she just turned her head off to the side but Van caught her lightly by the chin and moved her head in the direction of his. Fiona saw the pleading look still there and she knew that she wouldn't be able to lie to him at that moment. "To tell the truth, yes I was. I felt that if it meant that the world would be safe and there would be no more fighting that it would be a sacrifice that I would be willing to make," said Fiona as she looked down towards the ground in shame. She saw the look of hurt in Van's eyes and it made her feel even worse. Fiona was surprised a second later when she felt a pair of warm hands take a hold of her quivering ones. She looked up and saw Van staring at her in a way that he had never done before. The look scared her slightly but it also gave her a warm feeling in the pits of her stomach.  
  
"Why did you want to? Is it that you didn't have faith in me being able to defeat the deathsaurer?" asked Van in a hurt voice as he continued to stare down at Fiona with the piercing expression on his face. He was desperate to know what had compelled Fiona to try something like that.  
  
"No! Of course not! I did it because as long as zoid eve is around, there would be more continuous fighting and that is what I didn't want to see," said Fiona as she once again looked at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Somehow though her eyes traveled back up to meet Van's.  
  
"What you were planning on doing was to destroy all of the zoids on the planet. While it is true that zoids are the cause of most of the fighting, they have also brought happiness to others. Zoids can be like a best friend to man like Zeke is with me. It is also because of zoids that I found you and Zeke," said Van as he gripped Fiona's hand a little tighter. "I guess that what I am trying to say is that I am very thankful for all of that but I don't want to lose you or Zeke. You are my best friends and I don't know what I would do without you," said Van as he stared into the beautiful crimson eyes that were Fiona's.  
  
Neither of them knew what compelled them to do what they did next. Very slowly as if a small force was pushing them towards each other their heads starting to move closer to each other until their foreheads were touching. All they needed to do now was move less than an inch and their lips would seal in a kiss. Van placed a hand around Fiona waist and pulled her up towards him and their lips connected into a sweet yet intimate kiss. It drove both of their senses wild. What started out as a small kiss startled to become a little more passionate and neither wanted to break away from it. Fiona felt Vans tongue against her lips asking for entrance and she was not going to deny that as her mouth opened to accept him. Van's tongue roamed around Fiona's mouth and he became addicted to her taste. They seemed to stay like that for what seemed like eternity but in reality it was only a minute or two. Being it reality, they were forced to break apart for a much needed breath.  
  
Fiona was speechless. 'Did that just happen?' Fiona asked herself as a light blush appeared across her face. She had never expected something like that to come out of their conversation. It wasn't that she didn't like it; in fact it was quite the opposite. It was all so strange and new to her. Sure she had given him one that one time to help Van to defeat Raven and his genosaurer but this time it was completely different.  
  
Van gazed down at Fiona as he kept her wrapped in his arms. What he had just done was unlike nothing he had ever done before. It felt so right to have her wrapped in his arms and kissing him. It gave him an excitement unlike anything before. Even going up against the deathsaurer and the deathstinger was nothing compared to how he felt a few moments before.  
  
As soon as she had her breath back, Fiona immediately lunged at Van and laid another kiss upon his mouth. There was little hesitation upon each other's parts this time and the kiss was very passionate that it sent them both over the edge. There was little doubt on both of their parts about what was going through their minds at that moment.  
  
The two broke off a few minutes later and Fiona then buried her face into Van's chest. "I love you," she whispered in a voice that was barely audible yet it was still heard by Van. It took a lot of Fiona's chest at the moment that those three words left her mouth. She knew that she would end up saying it to Van sooner or later and she was glad that she was able to say it at that moment.  
  
He didn't know why he wasn't so shocked to hear this come from Fiona. It was like he already knew yet until that time he had paid little attention to it. He gave a small smile a he gave Fiona a slight peck on the lips. Van knew exactly how he felt and he was intent on telling Fiona that. He was however interrupted by a cough that was merely meant to get their attention. Van and Fiona separated reluctantly but kept their hands together as they turned to see a slightly annoyed Thomas standing there.  
  
"Hate to break up the little love fest but Van Crougar says that he needs to see you at this very moment," said Thomas trying his best to not show his jealousy of seeing the woman that he loved in the hands of Van and not his own. Maybe that was why he didn't feel too guilty about breaking apart their little moment.  
  
Van didn't want to but he knew that it was something that he had to do at that moment. He looked down at Fiona wanting to see what she had to say about this. What he got was a slight reluctant nod and then a kiss to his cheek before she stepped away from him. "I'll be right back," said Van as he gave her a small kiss before he followed after Thomas.  
  
*****  
  
A knock came upon the door to the now healthy Crougars office. "Come in," said Crougar as he looked at some of the monitors to see that it was Van standing right outside of the door.  
  
Van quietly walked into the room but not before giving Crougar a small salute. He walked over to a chair that was right in front of Crougars desk. "You wanted to see me sir?" asked Van as he shifted to get a bit more comfortable. Van was hoping at that moment to get what he needed so that he could get back to Fiona as soon as possible. It was hurting him to be apart from her after what the two had just gone through.  
  
"Yes I did Van. I will say what I need to now because by the looks of it you don't really want to be here at this moment. So here it goes. Van, I need you to go to a town that is a few days away from here to retrieve something that was left there," said Crougar trying to get down to the point.  
  
'What? No fighting?' van asked himself. It made him wonder why Crougar needed him of all people to do this when there were other people that had nothing else to do all over the shift. "If I may ask sir, why is it that you need me to do this? I am a soldier, not a messenger boy," said Van although he felt that it sounded kind of rude to say.  
  
"I can't trust anyone else with this. I know that you need some time to rest but this is very important that this thing needs to be brought here soon," said Crougar but Van had a sneaking suspicion that Crougar wasn't telling him something at that moment. "I promise you that this isn't going to be a waste of your time. However, I want you to do this by yourself. I don't want one of your friends tagging along as well," said Crougar. He saw the hurt look on Van's face but he was not going to let Van turn this down.  
  
Van didn't know why but for some reason he felt that he couldn't refuse this request. "Very well sir," said Van with a sigh. He did not want to go but it appeared that Crougar was being very persistent in his request.  
  
*****  
  
Fiona was definitely not too happy to hear that Van had to leave her when he told her what Crougar wanted him to do. "Do you have to go?" Fiona asked in a saddened voice as she looked up at Van as the two of them walked towards the blade liger.  
  
"Unfortunately I do. I promise that I will come back as soon as possible," said Van with a smile as he looked into the depressed face of Fiona. For some reason Van has this strange feeling inside of him like something was going to happen. "Do you think that you can wait for me to come back? If you can then I will have something special for you," said Van with a bright smile on his face.  
  
"I promise that I will be patient until you come back but please make it quick," pouted Fiona as she looked up as him with sad eyes. Van responded with a kiss to her forehead and then to her lips before he reluctantly walked away and entered the blade liger and set off. Fiona stared at him as the blade liger walked further and further away. Fiona could help but think that for some reason it was like he was walking out of her life, like she would never see him again. She quickly shook off the thoughts and headed back into the base as she touched her lips where Van had just kissed her. 'I will wait,' Fiona promised herself. 


	2. broken promise

Fiona tossed and turned on her bed like she had for many nights before. She then sprang up with sweat running down her face. She was trembling and there were signs that she was going to start crying.  
  
"No, not again," said Fiona as she clutched her sheets tightly in her fists. 'Why can't I just let this pass? It has been four years and it is not going away,' thought Fiona as she trembled a little.  
  
Four years ago she gave her heart away to Van. He ended up disappearing and no one knew what had happened to him. In a way she had grown to resent him a little for doing that to her. She wanted the pain to leave her. She wanted to get over this but her mind remained back there in the past.  
  
They had little info on Van's whereabouts. All they had was a discarded blade liger out in the desert. It wasn't damaged at all so it couldn't mean he was hurt but he made no attempts to contact any of them or even try to see them. It was almost as if he was avoiding all of them at any cost. Without the blade liger it makes it hard for any of them to track him. They think that that was what Van might have had in mind. It left them all angry at him. Fiona didn't know what to think, Irvine and Moonbay were pissed off with him, Thomas doesn't really give a care, and it appeared that Crougar was the only one to truly believe in Van at that moment. Why he is though has yet to be revealed.  
  
Fiona swung her feet over the edge of her bed and walked out of her room. Surprisingly, even after all these years, Fiona stuck in the military but she was more of a person for doing research in it. She stayed because that is where all of her friends were. Irvine stayed in and finally accepts that he is part of the guardian force, Moonbay just stuck with Irvine, Thomas never went anywhere either. As for people like Raven and Reese, no one had seen any sign of them since the defeat of the deathsaurer, many considered it a blessing though. Nothing much had really changed besides all of those things.  
  
Years ago, Fiona had made a promise that shattered her heart when Van disappeared. She didn't know what she was most angry at, Van for keeping her waiting, herself for making that promise that made life harder for her, or at herself again for not being able to keep her promise to Van. Sadly enough it was true. She had given up on waiting about two years before. She attempted to move on with her life, she tried to find someone else and she did. Also in less than a month the two were planning on getting married. Part of her felt like she was betraying van and another part was saying that she shouldn't be sorry. After all it was him that left her here all those years ago never to talk to any of them ever again.  
  
"Why exactly should I even care?" asked Fiona in a annoyed voice. "I tell him that I loved him and he just runs off afterwards without a word to anyone. Even after four years I have yet to hear anything," said an angry Fiona as she walked into the hanger. She looked up at the blade liger, as it stood tall and proud over most of the other zoids. Fiona could feel her anger melting away a little and the pain that she was accustomed to start to come back. It wasn't that she didn't love her fiancé, she did, it was just that no matter how much she did there was a piece of her heart that still belonged within Van's grasp. She didn't know why she didn't try to take it back for herself but a part of her didn't want her to.  
  
"Couldn't sleep again?" asked Moonbay as she walked silently behind Fiona. She had seen this many times over the past four years that it was no surprise to see Fiona standing there and staring at the blade liger. When they had brought the blade liger back Fiona took it as her own. Moonbay didn't know what compelled Fiona to take the zoid of the one that had broken her heart but she never really bothered to ask.  
  
Fiona didn't answer Moonbay's question but asked one of her own. "Where are Irvine and Thomas? I haven't seen either of them for a while," said Fiona as she continued to stare forward at the blade liger with unflinching eyes. Fiona didn't know why she suffered by keeping the blade liger for herself; it was her pain, her suffering yet at the same time it also gave a little happiness to know what she had for so short of a time a few years back.  
  
"Crougar sent them on a mission early yesterday morning. Apparently there was some trouble and the two were sent to put a stop to it," said Moonbay as she stood by her friend's side and placed a comforting hand on Fiona's shoulder. "How are you feeling about the wedding getting closer and closer?" asked Moonbay in a quiet tone without looking at Fiona.  
  
"I am nervous but I guess that it is a common thing," said Fiona as she cast her eyes downwards. Fiona looked like she was in deep thought while she looked at the ground.  
  
*****  
  
"Irvine, are you sure that we have the right coordinates because I don't see anything around her except for sand," complained Thomas as he did a scan over the area with Beak but he was not coming up with anything. "Beak is not picking up anything either so we have to have gotten the coordinates wrong," said Thomas as he slammed his fist down on the console.  
  
"No, we definitely have the right place. This group just have extremely good stealth technology and also have you ever heard of an underground base?" asked Irvine with a smirk as he looked ahead of him. "They are definitely here. When I was a mercenary I knew of many places like this so that should be enough," said Irvine in a calm voice.  
  
"Ok, whatever. Lets just hurry this up. Fiona's wedding is in a month and after this we get a vacation to go and see it," said Thomas in a disappointed voice. He was upset because Fiona had once again chosen someone else besides him. "I want to get the early so that we won't be in a big rush by the time that it is held at," said Thomas with a sigh.  
  
"Yeah. We just need to wait for reinforcements to get here. The zoids will be easy enough to take care of by our self but it won't be too easy when we break into the base. There are more than likely going to be more soldiers than either of us will be able to take on," said Irvine before he heard a beeping sound on the console. "They are here. Now it is time to get started," said Irvine with a smirk as he charged forward as zoids upon zoids started to appear out of the ground.  
  
*****  
  
"Ah, Fiona so wonderful to see you here," said a man who always seemed to have a bright smile upon his face. He had long white brown hair that was pulled into a small ponytail in the back. His blue eyes never seemed to miss a thing when it came to Fiona. "So what do you think sweetheart?" asked the man as he showed Fiona all the decorations that had put up in the great hall that their wedding was going to be taking place in.  
  
"It is beautiful Matt," said Fiona with a smile as she smelt some fresh flowers that were placed all throughout the hall. Sure, they would have to be replaced before the wedding but they smelt so good at that moment.  
  
"It couldn't be more lovely than you though," said Matt with a smile as he turned on the charm that was the reason that he had Fiona in the first place. When he had met her she was so sad. He couldn't really blame her for being sad either with what happened to Van. He used his charm and won her over after a while of trying.  
  
"You and your sweet talk," said Fiona with a slight laugh. He had to be one of the nicest people that she had ever met. Moonbay and the rest of her friends were always a bit apprehensive around him, which was something that she could not really figure out. She was curious as to how they couldn't like him as much as Fiona did.  
  
"It works every time though doesn't it?" asked Matt with a grin as he laid a kiss on Fiona lips. He kept her like that for a few minutes before the two broke apart and got to work on finishing things up for the day.  
  
There was something different about the way that he kissed compared to Van. Something that Fiona couldn't really place. A strange feeling like something was missing from it compared to the way that Van kissed her. 'I really shouldn't be thinking about something like that when I am getting married to someone else,' Fiona berated herself before she walked off.  
  
*****  
  
One after another, zoids fell with great ease by the hands of Irvine and Thomas' zoids. Looking over the field at that moment it looked to be more of a massacre rather than a battle. There were at least three or four times more enemy zoids littering the ground compared to ally zoids. Irvine felt it was a waste to fight a losing battle but the enemy continually sent out more zoids until Irvine guessed they were completely out of them. The group wasn't a major threat at the moment but they continually built up on more strength and had to be taken care of. They hurt others with no regards to their feelings. 'It had to be done,' thought Irvine as he walked around the destroyed zoids looking for a survivor.  
  
"I far as I could tell they were protecting much more than this base, or at least trying to stall for a bit of time or else they would have given up a long time ago to try and save themselves when they knew they were outmatched," said Thomas as he walked up behind Irvine. Despite it being a battle that was easily won, Thomas had a slight trickle of blood going down his forehead because he was hit in the side and the force made him hit his head inside of the dibison. He wiped away the blood on his forehead and looked around the place.  
  
"I think that you are right. Either way though, this group is more than likely finished for good but there is no sign of their leader. What did the files call him again? Oh yes, Derek. He must have been cowardly and got out of there at the first sign of danger. At least we don't have to worry about these guys besides for the groups that were probably already away from this place by the time that we got here. We will have to keep an eye out for them," said Irvine in a cautious tone as he walked towards the entrance of the base.  
  
The two walked cautiously through the halls where some of the other soldiers were already looking things over in case there were some hidden enemies somewhere around the place. They came upon a room and when they opened the door they realized that it was a control room. "This could be good," said Irvine with a smirk as he walked towards the computer and started to look through the files.  
  
"Anything good?" asked Thomas as he walked up to the computer to see what Irvine had. All he heard was a growl of frustration and he knew that there was no such luck. "Move out of the way amateur and let a professional like me take care of this," said Thomas as he practically shoved Irvine out of the way and typed a few things in. after a few failed attempts he detached the beak until and hooked it into the computer. "You know what to do Beak," said Thomas as the computer beeped a few times.  
  
Multiple screens popped up all over the place and almost all of them had either no data on them or a smiling face as if to mock the two of them for their pathetic attempts at trying to break into the system. "Damnit! They already got to it," yelled Irvine as he slammed his fist down on the computer.  
  
A guard ran through the door as if he was in a hurry and ran up to the two of them. "Sir, we have a bit of a problem," said the soldier as he stopped to take a breath as if he had run a large distance. "We found something and we think that you should look at it," said the soldier in a tired voice.  
  
"Take us there then," ordered Irvine as the soldier walked out of the room and the two followed right after him. He kept up a fast pace but Irvine could tell he was still a little tired. "Slow down and take a breather for a second," ordered Irvine as they stopped for a second. Irvine figured that whatever it was that the soldier wanted to show them was very important if the soldier was in such a hurry.  
  
After a short break they started to walk down hall after hall again into the deepest reaches of the large base. By now it appeared that not much attention had really been paid to this area. As if it laid forgotten for a while. A crowd could be seen ahead of them as they stood around an open door. They shoved their way through the crowd telling people to leave the area at once and they all obeyed.  
  
The soldier walked in front of the open door and signaled for them to walk inside. Thomas and Irvine walked cautiously into the room and froze with what they saw. "Oh god," muttered Irvine as his eyes widened in fear of what he was seeing before him at that moment. 


	3. what to do

Irvine and Thomas just couldn't believe their eyes. They weren't sure if their eyes were playing a trick upon them or if what they were seeing was actually real. "Van?' questioned Irvine as he took a step towards Van but the figure that was laying on a hard bed made no attempt to even look at them.  
  
His face was stricken black with filth almost as if it had been burned severely but in reality it was just filth that appeared to have been built up. His clothes were shredded in many areas and by the looks of it there were bloodstains all over his clothes. He was much skinnier than they had ever seen it and it made them wonder if he was even alive. His eyes held a blankness in them that scared Irvine and Thomas greatly.  
  
"I-I just don't believe it. He didn't just disappear he was kidnapped," muttered Thomas in shock as they looked at the mere shell of their old friend who they hadn't seen in years. "I-Is he alive?" asked Thomas as he took a step towards Van who yet again made no response to show that he even knew that they were there.  
  
Irvine took a step towards Van and grabbed his wrist to feel for a pulse. Sure enough, there was one. It was a weak one but it was there nonetheless. "He's alive, but just barely by the looks of it. He must have been tortured pretty badly in order to turn out like this," said Irvine in disbelief. How could they have done this to him and why? By our information they aren't part of Hiltz's or Prozen's group so there has to be some other motives as to why they did this," said Irvine as he took a step away.  
  
"They probably just did this so that they could make a name for themselves for torturing and then at some point trying to kill Van when so many before them have failed. Good thing that we got here when we did," said Thomas as he leaned against a wall to try and think of more reasons.  
  
"Lets try and think about all of this later. Right now we have to get him some medical attention or he may not last much longer. It is a surprise that he is even alive right now with all of the cuts and bruises that he had. He must have lost a lot of blood and by the looks of it they didn't even try to help him even if it meant they could torture him more," said Irvine in disbelief as he moved to Van's side and Thomas moved to the other. They both carefully lifted Van and got out of the door as fast and as carefully as they could.  
  
*****  
  
Moonbay drove through the desert as she sang her usual song. "I am Moonbay, transporter or the wasteland," sang Moonbay but it didn't seem as enthusiastic as she normally did. She was happy for Fiona but she didn't really like who she was marrying he. He just seemed a little too cheerful for his own good. 'Maybe that is a stupid excuse, but I don't like him,' thought Moonbay.  
  
She was brought out of her singing when she heard the console of the gustav beeping meaning that she had an incoming call. "Yeah?" asked Moonbay as a picture of Irvine popped up on the screen and he didn't look too happy. "Hey there Irvine. Why haven't you left already to get to the wedding?" asked Moonbay seeing the hanger of the base behind him.  
  
"Turn back," was Irvine quick greeting without even a hello. He saw Moonbay puzzled look and he decided to elaborate. "Turn around and come back. We have an emergency down here and we need you help a little. I don't have much time to explain my reason but this is more important than the wedding," said Irvine in a hurried voice.  
  
"What's going on?" asked Moonbay with the confused look still on her face. She had no idea what Irvine wanted her back there for when she was about to arrive at where Fiona was getting married.  
  
"I told you I have no time to explain. Just hurry up and get back here as soon as you can. This is too important. Oh, and don't tell Fiona about any of this," said Irvine very annoyed as he shut off the communication leaving the still confused Moonbay behind.  
  
Moonbay had no idea what was going on but she decided to take Irvine's word for it. 'He did sound very urgent when he spoke. Maybe it would be worth my time to go back, but why is it that he didn't want me to tell Fiona about this,' thought Moonbay with a shrug before she turned the gustav around and drove in the opposite direction.  
  
*****  
  
Fiona sat in front of a mirror as she carefully brushed her beautiful blonde hair. She was alone and humming a small tune to herself as she waited for Moonbay's arrival. Moonbay had been a big help for Fiona since Van's disappearance and she was going to be Fiona's maid of honor at the wedding. Moonbay was going to come that day to help Fiona out in getting prepared but she had yet to show up. 'I wonder where she is,' thought Fiona as she set her brush down.  
  
A knock came upon Fiona's door and Fiona stood up and walked over to it. Upon opening the door, Fiona saw a woman with a smile on her face. "Excuse me miss Fiona, but there was a call that came in for you," said the woman as she turned around and signaled for Fiona to follow her.  
  
The two walked down a few of the halls until they came across a small room that held a few computers all around it. Fiona walked into the room and the woman walked away. Fiona sat down in a chair and pressed a button and Moonbay's face popped up. "Oh hello Moonbay. What is taking you so long to get here?" asked Fiona in a calm voice.  
  
"I'm afraid not. Something important has come up and I won't be able to make for a few more days. I am sorry but this has to be done," said Moonbay in a sorry voice. Moonbay did as Irvine said and decided not to tell Fiona that it was Irvine and Thomas that needed her at that moment. "I promise you that I will be there for you wedding though. Like I said, I am terribly sorry," said Moonbay hoping that Fiona would understand.  
  
"I understand," said Fiona in a disappointed tone. "You do what you have to do and get back here quickly," said Fiona but at this point she was getting really nervous and she could really have used Moonbay's support.  
  
"Thanks Fiona, I really appreciate it. I will go as fast as I can and then get there as fast as I can. I will see you later," said Moonbay before the screen shut off leaving Fiona alone again.  
  
*****  
  
Moonbay angrily pulled into the bases hanger bay and jumped out. She was seriously annoyed that she drove all that way and then had to come back. She looked around quickly and tried to catch a glimpse of either Irvine or Moonbay but for some strange reason the entire hanger was close to empty with there being only a few people around. 'What the,' thought Moonbay because the place was usual pretty full.  
  
"Moonbay," came Irvine's voice, which made Moonbay jump up into the air since she wasn't expecting it. "You did keep your mouth shut about this when it comes to Fiona right?" was the first question that Irvine ask instead of a hello.  
  
"Well hello to you too," said an annoyed Moonbay. "No, I just told her that I had some important business that I needed to take care of and she didn't ask any questions about it," said Moonbay as the two started to walk out of the hanger bay. "So what is so urgent that you had to call me back over that large distance? It had better be a good reason to drag me all the way back here," said Moonbay trying to get to the point as fast as she could.  
  
"This is very important like I said. We found something very important on our last mission that we felt that you had the right to know, it is also the main reason that we didn't want Fiona to know since we knew she would start worrying too much," said Irvine as the walked through on of the halls.  
  
"What is this important thing that you found? Was it something like Van?" asked Moonbay but she was only joking around. She realized that Irvine wasn't beside her and was being awfully quiet. "It is him, isn't it? Alright let me at him I am so going to hurt him for what he did to Fiona," said Moonbay as she rolled up her sleeve and balled her hand into a tight fist.  
  
"No Moonbay," said Irvine only to be met with Moonbay's confused face. "While it is true that we did find Van, there was something very wrong with how we found him," said Irvine as he started to walk again.  
  
"What do you mean by that? Was he working with the enemy?" asked Moonbay only to get a no from Irvine. "Then what is it that makes it so wrong about finding him?" asked Moonbay not realizing that they were walking through the medical wing.  
  
Irvine suddenly stopped in front of a door and Moonbay stopped right next to him. She looked form the door to Irvine asking for an explanation as to what he had been getting at.  
  
Irvine opened the door and walked into the room without a noise and Moonbay soon followed him. She now realized their location and was shocked. "Irvine, does this mean what I think it means?" asked Moonbay but Irvine didn't answer and just walked in front of one of the beds and Moonbay followed. As soon as she laid her eyes on Van, her hands shot up to her mouth in shock.  
  
"He was tortured. For the past four years, these men had him captured and tortured for their own pleasure. I don't think it had anything to do with what he has done in the past because these guys weren't with Hiltz or Prozen and they hated the deathsaurer and deathstinger as well. It is a wonder that he was even alive when we found him," said Irvine in a quiet tone.  
  
All of Moonbay's anger and hatred that was building up because of what Van had done disappeared so fast that it surprised her. "This is why you didn't want Fiona to know. Despite what he had done, Fiona stilled cared for him and then if she was to see him in this shape it would completely devastate her. I can't believe that someone would even do anything like this," said an extremely shocked Moonbay.  
  
"We have yet to find their leader yet because he disappeared before we even got in," said Irvine in a disappointed tone. "He doesn't even respond to anything we do. His body is badly beaten; he lost a lot of blood. Like I said before, it was a wonder how he could have even survived all of this time. The doctors that have looked him over think it is a slim chance that he will survive but that is enough for me. at least he has a chance," said Irvine with his tone full of sadness and anger at the same time.  
  
"I feel so bad. All this time we thought that he had just run away from all of us and left a hurt Fiona. We should have known much better that he wouldn't intentionally have hurt Fiona the way that he did," said Moonbay as she placed her face into her hands out of the grief that she held within her at that moment.  
  
"I feel the same way as you. We shouldn't have jumped to conclusions about what Van had done. We should have known that something was up when he disappeared and didn't even send a letter or anything along those lines," said Irvine feeling the grief that Moonbay was also feeling.  
  
"Look at him. He has all of those wounds and yet it doesn't even look like he is in an ounce of pain," said Moonbay as she looked over the unconscious yet calm looking Van as he laid in the bed with all sorts of machines hooked up to him.  
  
"I am guessing that he is in pain but over the years he just shut himself off from showing emotions while he is in the presence of others. It is a good idea because as long as they don't see that you are in pain then they wouldn't get as much satisfaction in torturing him. I looks like they didn't care and still continued to torture him," said Irvine as he sat down in a chair and then Moonbay sat down right next to him.  
  
"What are we going to do about Fiona? While it is a good idea not to tell her at this moment, sooner or later we will have to tell her," said Moonbay dreading the thought of what her reaction would be.  
  
"I think that we should tell her before her wedding. I think this because if Fiona still loves Van like before than she shouldn't get married to Matt. We all know that she had much stronger feeling for Van than she has with her current fiancé," said Irvine as he leaned back and stared at the ceiling.  
  
"No," said Moonbay making Irvine look at her with a questioning glance. "I think that it should be Van that talks to her. That is if we can help him survive and get better before the wedding," said Moonbay and Irvine also thought it was a good idea. "Then I guess we will have to do our best to just keep him alive for now. I just hope that we can make him better in time for the wedding," said Moonbay in a worried tone. 


	4. strange feelings

Something didn't feel right at that moment for Fiona. Moonbay had disappeared without giving Fiona the complete truth because she could tell that there was something that Moonbay wasn't telling her and it was starting to make her wonder what it was. She was starting to wish that she had dug into the situation a little deeper and found out what it was that Moonbay was hiding.  
  
Fiona was so deep in thought that she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. She was running a brush through her hair a bit too roughly but she had yet to even feel it.  
  
"You know, I don't think you should keep doing that or it will ruin that beautiful hair of yours," came Matt's voice from the doorway behind Fiona. He laughed slightly before he walked in through the door and stopped Fiona from destroying her hair.  
  
"Oh, sorry," said Fiona with a slight blush of embarrassment. "I was just thinking of something and I guess that I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing," said Fiona looking at the floor in embarrassment.  
  
"Well try to pay a little more attention or you might end up tearing it out of that beautiful head of yours and I am sure that that is something that you don't want to happen," said Matt with a smirk. He now stood in front of Fiona. "Care to talk about what is on your mind at the moment?" asked Matt getting down to look Fiona in the eyes.  
  
"Moonbay was supposed to come earlier today but she called saying that she wasn't going to get here for a few more days. I could tell that there was something that she wasn't telling me and it is starting to make me wonder a little bit," said Fiona giving off a small pout.  
  
Matt couldn't help but give off a small smile. "I am sure that she had her reasons or maybe she didn't know of what it was either so she couldn't tell you. You did say that she was a transporter, so maybe a very important job came up and she was forced to go to do that real quickly. You really shouldn't worry about it too much though," said Matt still smiling while trying to find some way to make Fiona stop worrying so much so that the wedding would go a lot smoother.  
  
"Yeah, I guess your right," said Fiona finally stopping her worrying and putting a smile on her face. She saw him smile back at her before he stood up and started to walk to the door. "Where are you going?" asked Fiona trying to stop him.  
  
"I just remembered that there was a phone call that I had to make. I will talk to you when I am finished," said Matt before he walked out of the door. Only a few seconds after that he walked back in with a grin. "Oh by the way. Be gentle with you hair or you will end up tearing it out," he said before he once again disappeared behind the door with it closing behind him.  
  
*****  
  
"How are we going to do this exactly?" asked Moonbay who was drawing up blanks about how to deal with the problem that Van was having at that moment. Everyone was up for trying to get Fiona and Van back together but they didn't know how it was that they were going to get him back to his normal self in time.  
  
"We really have no choice but to work on it along the way. As it is, we might barely be able to make it in time if we were to start going now," said Thomas with his head in his hands in deep thought.  
  
"What we need to do is find a way to get him to actually respond to what we are saying or else we won't be able to do anything. He'll live, that is for sure but unless he is healthy then maybe we won't be able to do anything," said Irvine trying to think of any way in which they could actually get this to work.  
  
"The truth is that Fiona is really the only one who might actually be able to get to him," said Thomas but the glares that Irvine and Moonbay sent him didn't even make him flinch. "Think about it. She might be very worried about him but it could delay the wedding for a while which could give us a little extra time. I don't want to see Fiona with Matt even if she can't be with me. She loves Van and if she is happy then I am happy," said Thomas in a disappointed tone.  
  
Irvine looked at Moonbay for an answer. He had no idea what to do, Thomas did have a point and to tell the truth he really didn't trust that Matt guy ever since he met him. It was like there was something secretive about him that sent shivers down Irvine's spine at the moment they first met.  
  
Moonbay looked at Irvine at the same time that he looked at her. Her thoughts were the same in that Thomas was right for once. "Maybe your right. She is smart and she will eventually find out at some point and it would be best if it was us that told her," Moonbay said while letting off a sigh before she got up and started to walk to the door knowing that it might not be the best of conversations.  
  
*****  
  
Fiona found herself once again staring at the blade liger. It was something she wished to put behind her but having the blade liger with her had made things a bit easier on her over these few years. Her mind was a mess, it seemed to have pulled her towards the blade liger that night for reasons that she was unsure of. Looking at it now brought up even stranger feelings, feelings like she was missing something at that moment that gave her a bad feeling.  
  
"So this is the infamous blade liger," came Matt's voice as he walked up to Fiona's side very silently. "In all of the time that we have been together, this is the first time that I have actually seen it. I am surprised that I didn't notice it when you first came here," said Matt staring at the blade liger with a look of pride. "It sure is a beauty," he muttered underneath his breath.  
  
"Yeah, I guess it is," said Fiona quietly looking down at the floor. 'It is also a reminder of my past. Something I wish I could put behind but I can never seem to be able to do that,' Fiona told herself.  
  
"Just looking at it now, it makes me wish to feel what he felt while piloting it. Feel the power that is hidden deep within its beautiful exterior," said Matt as he took a few steps forward towards the blade liger. He reached out a hand to touch it.  
  
"No! Don't touch it," said Fiona quickly grabbing his hand. Fiona had no idea why she had just done that. It was a strange feeling that she would lose her past should another use it. 'But isn't that what I want?' Fiona asked herself taking a few steps back with Matt watching her with a curious glance.  
  
"Why not? We're getting married, so wouldn't that make this partly mine as well? Why is it that you didn't want me to touch it?" asked Matt keeping his curious stare on Fiona. He saw her own confusion with herself while he was looking at her.  
  
"I-I don't know," said a quiet Fiona taking a few steps away. Fiona figured that she might as well change the subject so she wouldn't have to think about what she had done really means. "So how did your important call go?" asked Fiona trying to put on a smile.  
  
"It went just fine. It was mainly just a few plans that I was making to make sure that this wedding goes along perfectly without any distractions," said Matt as he wrapped his arms around Fiona's waist. "Everything will be perfect," he whispered into her ear.  
  
"That's good," said Fiona but something in the back of her mind was really bothering her but she couldn't quite place what it was at that moment. It was something like what had brought her out to the blade liger earlier that day.  
  
"What's wrong now?" asked Matt seeing a bit of uncertainty within Fiona eyes. "You aren't thinking about stopping the wedding now when it is so close are you?" asked Matt hoping that that wasn't what she was thinking about.  
  
"No, it isn't that. I want it to go on. It is just. Never mind. It is kind of stupid. You don't really need to hear about it right now," said Fiona with a slight giggle. She was lying though. Something was really starting to feel wrong for her and she was desperate to find out what it was that was constantly plaguing the back of her mind within these past two weeks.  
  
"If you have something to say then I would be glad to hear about it. I am going to be your future husband so I feel like I have the right to know what it is that is wrong with my future wife," said Matt looking Fiona straight in the eye.  
  
"I told you it is nothing. I have just been having a bit of a headache these past few weeks and it is really starting to get to me I guess," said Fiona which wasn't far from the truth because all of the constant thinking she had been doing to think about what it was that had been bugging her had been giving her a migraine as it was.  
  
"You know, I can always help you with that," said Matt trying his best to make his voice as sexy as he could. "Why don't we just go up to my room and I will do something for you that will take your mind off of that headache of yours," said Matt with a smirk as he grabbed Fiona around the waist and started to pull her towards his room but she pulled out of it.  
  
"No! That is something that will be saved for the wedding night and not before then. I have told you this so many times so will you please just drop the subject about it because my choice will remain the same every time," said Fiona because it was a common thing for him to take every chance that he could get to get her. Fiona didn't know why she put up with it but he never did try to use force but always left it up to her final decision.  
  
Matt merely pouted at this. "But the wedding is in only two weeks so I don't think that it will matter if we celebrate a little early," said Matt trying to persuade her otherwise.  
  
"Forget it because I am not giving myself to anyone unless they are my husband and not before that. So just drop the subject now," said Fiona in a stern voice. She looked at him pout but he agreed anyways. She smiled and kissed him before she walked off to get some sleep for the night.  
  
*****  
  
Irvine and Thomas waited very patiently. Moonbay had been gone a lot longer than either of them had expected her to be as long as she had but then again this was a very delicate situation for them to break to Fiona.  
  
"How do you think Fiona is going to react?" asked Thomas as his mind tried to place all the possible situations Moonbay could be in at that moment with either trying to calm her down or actually get her to say something.  
  
"I predict a little yelling, crying, possible a passing out on Fiona part from shock. I can tell you that it is most likely not going to be too pretty on Moonbay's part. Thank god its not me that has to tell her," said Irvine with a sigh.  
  
Thomas looked like he was about to say something but Moonbay walked into the door a few moments later with a glum look on her face. "I guess that I don't have to ask to know that it didn't really go to well with Fiona," said Thomas but he received a no from Moonbay. "What do you mean?" asked Thomas with a confused look on his face.  
  
"I couldn't tell her. Apparently communications have been down all over the continent for the past few hours and won't be up for a week or two. We can't wait that long though. If we want to tell her then we have to get going now," said Moonbay in a sad tone.  
  
"As long as Van is the way that he is then we really can't do anything though. I suggest that we sleep on it and decide what we are going to do in the morning. Maybe then we will be able to come up with some sort of plan," said Irvine letting off a loud yawn.  
  
When he received a nod from the other two, they walked towards their room. However, Irvine didn't go to his room immediately. Instead he walked into the room where Van was being held at that moment.  
  
"Look at you. Are you just going to stay like that like you have been for the past two weeks?" said Irvine in an annoyed voice. "I just thought you would like to know that in a matter of a few weeks, Fiona is going to be getting married," said Irvine but what he didn't notice about Van at that moment was that upon the mentioning of Fiona's name there was a slight twitch in Van's fingers. "If you want to have any chance of being with her then you had better get better very quickly," said Irvine before he turned around and walked out of the room very quickly.  
  
The room was very quiet then except for the constant beeping of the machine that was monitoring Van's heart rate. The beeping suddenly started to increase a little and became faster and faster. Suddenly, Van's eyes shot open. 


	5. reason for distrust

A good nights rest was all that they needed to clear their heads a bit so that they could think clearly and come up with some sort of plan as to what they were going to do with Van.  
  
"It would probably just be best to take him with us the way that he is at the moment. The wedding is in a little over a week and that is about how long it is going to take us to get there. So we really shouldn't be wasting time talk like this," said an annoyed Irvine since no one was able to really think of anything and they were wasting time by sitting there and thinking.  
  
"The problem is if Crougar will actually let us take Van even in the state that he is in. I don't think he would let us just because we don't want Fiona to marry someone else," said Thomas finding the one flaw in that plan.  
  
"Let me deal with that, but for now lets just go and grab Van so that we can get moving as fast as we can," said Moonbay as the three of them stood up and started to walked towards the door to Van's room in the medical wing.  
  
"I'll grab Van, you two go and plead with Crougar," said Irvine and the other two just nodded and the three of them separated with Irvine walking up to Van door. He quietly opened it up and walked into the room but there was no one in there. "That's odd. He was just here last night," he told himself as he turned around.  
  
After walking out of the door he ran directly into Moonbay, Thomas, and Crougar. "Oh, there you are Irvine. These two told me what you wanted to do but I don't think I can approve of something like that. It would just put Van in a bit of danger at being out there in his injured state," said Crougar calmly as Thomas and Moonbay hung their heads low in defeat.  
  
"Uh, yeah. I was wondering if maybe anyone had moved Van anytime in the night," said Irvine, which earned him many curious stares from the three others. "Well?" asked Irvine when no one was answering.  
  
"No one moved him. Why did you ask something like that?" asked Crougar but Irvine just moved out of the way for him to see. He cautiously walked into the room to find that no one was there. The sheets on the bed were a mess but other than that it looked like no one had been in the room in the first place. "Either someone must have moved him without my knowledge or he had woken up but I doubt the second one because of his injuries he should have been out for a much longer amount of time," said Crougar quickly brushing past the three of them and walking down the corridor to get answers.  
  
He didn't really get too far before a young soldier appeared out of nowhere startling him a little. "I am sorry sir but we have a bit of a problem at the moment. It appears that we are missing a zoid as well as some data had been stolen from another. You are needed to come and take a look at it," said the soldier with a salute before he ran off.  
  
The three of them watched as Crougar walked off to take care of the task. "Stolen data... stolen zoid... missing Van," said the three of them before the pieces seemed to fit directly into place. The three of them looked at each other before they all scrambled to see if their assumption was correct.  
  
The three of them ran into the hanger where they found Crougar talking with the same soldier as before while many other were searching all over the place and also within Moonbay's gustav.  
  
"What the hell do all of you think that you are doing within my gustav? Get out of there now!" yelled Moonbay making all of the people scatter every which way in order to escape their wrath. "Old Man! What were they doing in my Gustav?" Moonbay yelled at Crougar.  
  
Crougar remained unflinchingly calm. "The data that was stolen came out of your gustav. While we may not know who did it because of a sandstorm distorting the camera's last night. Someone saw someone get into you gustav while all of the lights was turned off at that moment. We were just trying to figure out what it was that they either took or were looking at," said Crougar with a placid expression on his face as he turned to look at the furious Moonbay.  
  
"Why not just ask me to do it? It is my gustav after all!" yelled Moonbay shoving him out of the way and jumping into her gustav. She spent at least a good ten minutes in there typing at everything and growling in a frustrated way whenever she didn't find what she was looking for. After a while she had a smirk on her face and jumped out of the gustav and ran to Irvine, Thomas, and Crougar. "Nothing really big was taken except for the direction to the place where Fiona is getting married. Good thing I had it memorized. You do know what that means, don't you?" asked Moonbay with a smile which made Irvine and Thomas smile as well.  
  
"You bet! Sorry old man but we have to chase after Van, since it is now obvious that he had woken up last night, taken the data as well as the zoid to get out of here," said Irvine with a smirk as he ran towards his lightning saix as Moonbay ran towards her gustav.  
  
"With the zoid that was stolen being a storm sworder, we have wasted too much time as it is and we have to catch up with him," said Thomas also running off to his dibison. It wasn't long before the three of them were off at full speed away from the base leaving a speechless Crougar.  
  
*****  
  
A storm sworder flew through the air at its top speed but the pilot inside of it didn't even seem to feel the extreme forces that it was placing upon his body. His eyes held an emotionless feature to them as if he wasn't quite there. His mouth moved but only one word continued to come out of it. The name of the person that had plagued his mind in his long years of torture, the one that he had thought of to keep him alive through all of the pain, "Fiona."  
  
Being in one of the fastest known zoids on the planet, Van knew that it wouldn't take very long to reach the destination that he had in mind. After all, he did have to worry about mountains, lakes, and forests, anything that would block his path and delay him from reaching his destination.  
  
He had already been flying for about a day and he knew that he was very near his beloved Fiona. He could see the town fast approaching him off in the horizon and was already slowing down the speedy zoid to prepare for landing.  
  
Deciding against raising a commotion by landing inside of the town, Van landed it just on the outskirts and decided to walk the rest of the way. He couldn't really go to fast or very far though. Over the years of his torture, Van had seemed to build up a slight immunity to the physical pains that he had to go through. Although he couldn't feel the pain, Van felt the weakness that went through his body with having it be under pressure for such a long period of time because of the forces of flying the storm sworder at full speed the whole way.  
  
Van continued to walk despite his body's weakness at the moment. His strong will to see Fiona was enough to keep him moving despite his body's obvious objection. He knew it would last much longer but he felt that he had to keep moving.  
  
Many stares came his way as he weakly walked through the town. He really couldn't blame them either because he had many bandages wrapped around his body and he also looked like he was going to collapse at any minute, which he had a good feeling like he was going to.  
  
Suddenly everything started to go blurry all around him. 'I pushed myself too hard,' Van told himself as he stumbled to the side of a building to help him keep balance. He knew it wouldn't help for long and he was right when darkness surrounded him and he collapsed onto the street.  
  
***Fiona's Dream***  
  
Fiona was definitely not too happy to hear that Van had to leave her when he told her what Crougar wanted him to do. "Do you have to go?" Fiona asked in a saddened voice as she looked up at Van as the two of them walked towards the blade liger.  
  
"Unfortunately I do. I promise that I will come back as soon as possible," said Van with a smile as he looked into the depressed face of Fiona. For some reason Van has this strange feeling inside of him like something was going to happen. "Do you think that you can wait for me to come back? If you can then I will have something special for you," said Van with a bright smile on his face.  
  
"I promise that I will be patient until you come back but please make it quick," pouted Fiona as she looked up as him with sad eyes. Van responded with a kiss to her forehead and then to her lips before he reluctantly walked away and entered the blade liger and set off. Fiona stared at him as the blade liger walked further and further away. Fiona could help but think that for some reason it was like he was walking out of her life, like she would never see him again. She quickly shook off the thoughts and headed back into the base as she touched her lips where Van had just kissed her. 'I will wait,' Fiona promised herself.  
  
***End Dream***  
  
Fiona shot up in her bed with sweat dropping down her face. 'It is that dream again,' thought Fiona as pain shot through her heart like it did whenever she had the dream. She knew the pain that she felt was guilt, but she didn't know why when it was Van that had abandoned her. She wouldn't have felt as bad about it if he had talked to her about it.  
  
To tell the truth she had all faith in him returning for a while after he had disappeared. She had waited patiently but he never sent anything to her, never tried to make contact with her. At the time she had thought that something bad might have happened it him.  
  
It didn't happen that way though. Time after time she would hear rumors of his appearance in places all over the continent. She had searched for him as her patience started to wear thin. When they came across his blade liger, a shock came to her that started to break her confidence.  
  
They found his blade liger in the middle of the desert unharmed. There wasn't even the slightest scratch on it at the moment, almost like it was brand new. They had taken it back to the base to look through it to find what Van was up to. That was when the shock came to her.  
  
In one of the compartment of the blade liger, they found many photos of Van, Fiona, and their friends that Fiona remembered having been taken over the years. Every single one of the pictures that had Fiona in them was sliced up in the area where she was, or her picture was covered up to hide her from view.  
  
Fiona refused to believe it even after that that Van had abandoned her. More and more rumors of his appearances kept coming up and little by little it continued to break her until eventually she just accepted the fact that he had abandoned her. Moonbay and the others tried to convince her that she had to be wrong but eventually they started to see the truth as well.  
  
Yet somewhere in the back of Fiona's heart, there was something telling Fiona that there was something wrong about the whole situation. Even until this day, that very small piece of her heart was still waiting and not accepting all of the facts that had been placed before her.  
  
Fiona looked out of the window to her hotel room at the already risen sun and could hear a bit of a commotion going on not too far from her room. She quietly got off of her bed and walked over and took a look out at the people down below. Very faintly she could see a large crowd forming a few blocks from her location. She was curious as to what was going on but decided to not let it get on her mind because she had a wedding in a mere week to get ready for.  
  
Thinking about the wedding once again sent the pain throughout her heart. The small piece of her heart felt like this was betraying her promise to Van. 'How could I be betraying Van when it was him that betrayed me in the first place?' Fiona asked herself a little bitterly before she got dressed and walked out of the room.  
  
*****  
  
"Damn it! We are way too far behind. We have to hurry up a little bit!" yelled Irvine wanting to go full speed with the lightning saix but it would leave the other two behind.  
  
"Well we are going as fast as we can, so will you please shut up and stop complaining?" yelled an annoyed Moonbay. "I am just as eager to get there as you are but my gustav and Thomas's dibison can only go so fast. They aren't really for speed like yours is," growled Moonbay slamming her fist onto the controls.  
  
Preferring to keep his life going for a little while longer, Irvine decided to keep his mouth shut for the time being. "I wonder how it is that Van managed to do what he did while he was that badly injured. As Crougar had said, his injuries should have kept him in that coma for a while," said Irvine.  
  
"We will just have to ask him when we find him. I am also very curious as to how he managed to pull it off. Then again, he has done many things in the past that were thought impossible," said Thomas with a slight smirk.  
  
"I would like to know as well but lets focus on what we are trying to do. We have to get there as fast as we can. Irvine, why don't you go ahead? When you get there see if Van had already come by but don't say anything to Fiona because I want him to be there with us when we tell her or she might not believe us," said Moonbay hoping to speed things up a little.  
  
"Maybe I should have done that from the beginning," said Irvine with a slight frown. "Oh well, I guess I am off then. I will meet you guys there," said Irvine taking off like lightning leaving the two others moving as fast as they can to keep up. 


	6. need of help

Van's eyes slowly opened to find that he was in a bed in someone's house. His mind was a mess. He had no idea how long he had been out for but he felt he needed to hurry so he could see Fiona. To tell the truth, he was afraid that she might not want to see him after all that he had heard.  
  
"I see that you are finally awaken young man," came the voice of an elderly man as he walked through the door into the room with a bright smile on his face. There was something about him that seemed to remind Van of Dr. D but he wasn't sure what it was. He seemed to look good for someone that was old. He didn't show any signs of weariness. Van guessed that that was what reminded him of Dr. D.  
  
Van sat up in his bed but clutched his ribs as a pain swept through his body. "How long have I been out?" asked Van cringing as he tried to stand up but he found that he had hardly any strength in his body, much like it was when he first got here.  
  
"Oh, I would say about four days at the least. You were in pretty rough shape when you first came here. Your body was battered and torn quite a bit," he replied seriously but then a smile graced his lips. "At least you are awake and alive, I was beginning to wonder for a while if you would ever wake up," he admitted.  
  
"Four day?" Van muttered to himself. He didn't know if maybe he had missed it or not because he was unsure when it was exactly. All that he knew was that it was very close to the time when he got to the town and that he really didn't have too much time to waste, but now he had been unconscious for about four days. "Um...do you know if there is any weddings taking place within the next few days?" asked Van hoping that he hadn't missed it.  
  
"Sure there is, in a small town like this, news like that gets around pretty quickly. The groom's name is Matt. He came to this town a few years back and helped us out when we needed it the most after a raid by bandits. He has been living her ever since. He is getting married to a woman by the name of Fiona. Quite a beautiful young thing is I do say so myself. I have talked to her every once in a while and she is also very nice and very smart. Brains, Beauty, and very kind; it is hard to come by all of those in a woman nowadays. I heard that at one point she was actually together with Van Flyheight but he ended up leaving her. Poor fool, doesn't know what he missed out on," he said with a hint of anger in his voice. He then heard a bit of mumbling coming from Van. "What was that?" he asked since he didn't hear what Van had said.  
  
"I-I didn't have any choice in the matter at all," said Van sadly surprising the old man a little because he realized that he was talking to Van Flyheight. Van had to agree with the old man's description of Fiona. Everything that he said was very true. She was smart, she was kind, and she was the most beautiful person that Van had ever known.  
  
"You mean you're?" asked the shocked old man. He pretty much figured out all that had happened. Many of the scars on Van's body were old and never taken proper care of. He was a doctor in his day and he had only seen such things on people that were tortured.  
  
Van mere nodded his head. "I was picking something up for someone and I was ambushed and taken captive for four long years, tortured until my spirit was pretty much broken. I stayed alive for her though, hoping that some day I would get out and be with her but when it actually happened, I learned that she was getting married," Van said sadly.  
  
"I am sorry to hear that. It must have been very hard when you first heard of it. I don't know what I would do if the woman that I loved was getting married to someone else. It would probably drive me insane," he said seriously really feeling bad for Van.  
  
"I need to talk to her, see if there is anything that I can do to get her back. I am afraid that she won't even talk to me though," Van said while looking towards his hands. He was getting desperate; he had to see Fiona soon. "How long is it till the wedding?" asked Van looking up at the old man.  
  
"In three days. I suggest that you rest up before you do anything though. It will do you no good to talk to anybody when you only have less than a quarter of your strength. Now lie down and get some sleep. I will go and get you something to eat," he said kindly as he left the room.  
  
Van didn't know if he would be able to sleep anyways. Fiona was plaguing his mind. He needed to talk to her as soon as possible no matter how much of his strength he had at that moment.  
  
A few minutes later, the old man walked back into the room carrying a tray of food for Van. He looked around surprised when he saw that Van was nowhere in the room at that moment. He couldn't help but smile. 'That boy has a lot of determination to go in the condition that he was in,' he thought with a smile.  
  
Van wondered around to the back of the place where he knew that Fiona was staying. It was there that he found a very beautiful garden. The smells filled his nostrils and made him feel a little sleepy but he walked into it. He stopped very quickly however when he noticed that someone was already there. He quickly hid for reasons that he didn't know. The person however didn't see him. He looked out of his hiding place behind some bushes to see that it was none other than Fiona that was there. The old man was right; she looked very beautiful just like he remembered her, maybe even more.  
  
She had a glow to her as she walked through the flowers and occasionally taking some in her gentle hands. She had a sad look to her face though, one that Van felt like he was responsible for. He was very tempted to go out and just hold her in his arms and never let go. He didn't know why he didn't though.  
  
Fiona took a beautiful purple flower within her hands and took a sniff of its beautiful fragrance. She had a strange feeling at that moment that there was something else in the garden that she needed to see but she wasn't sure what.  
  
Fiona really enjoyed being able to just come out to places like this to get away from all of her problems. It had helped her greatly ever since Van had left her. 'Van,' thought Fiona sadly as she looked towards the ground. She hated him, yet she loved him still. It was a strange feeling within her heart that things weren't as they were supposed to be. No matter how much she has seen or heard, the feeling continued to stay with her throughout all of these years. A tear escaped her eye at that moment.  
  
Van felt very bad when he had seen the tears fall from her eyes. He just knew that at that moment that he was the cause of those tears. It made his heart twist in pain. He was just about going to jump out of his hiding place and face Fiona. He was about to stand up when something was placed over his mouth and his went unconscious very quickly but not without a struggle first.  
  
Fiona was startled when she heard a suddenly rustle in the bushes very close to her location. 'What was that?' she asked herself as she took a step backwards. She heard the door to the hotel open and someone else walk out towards her.  
  
"Fiona, is something the matter?" asked Matt as he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He could feel that she was a bit shaken up. "Fiona?" he asked in a worried tone.  
  
"I am fine. I just heard something in the bushes and I guess that it kind of startled me," admitted Fiona with a smile as she turned to face him but she found him staring at where she had been looking a few moments before.  
  
"I am sure that it is nothing. Why don't we check it out? I am pretty sure that there is nothing bad in there and if there is then I will protect you from whatever it is," he said with a bright smile as he took her hand and practically dragged Fiona towards it.  
  
When they reached the bushes, Matt took a quick look in them to see if there was anything in them at that time. He looked them over and found absolutely nothing at that moment. "Take a look, there is nothing here," he said while Fiona walked up to the bushes seeing that there was nothing as well.  
  
Fiona was about to pull away when suddenly a bird came out of nowhere from the bush. Fiona fell back out of shock for a second while Matt burst out with laughter. "It's not funny," pouted Fiona.  
  
"Sure it is, just not for you," he said while continuing with his laughter. "Come on, lets go back inside because we have a few things that we need to take care of before we can get married," he said while taking her hand and walking back into the hotel. "You know," he said with a mischievous grin.  
  
"Forget it. Am I going to have to say it again before you get it in your head? You only have to wait three days so calm down a little and be a little patient," said Fiona before walking ahead of him and into the hotel. he mere gave a sigh before following.  
  
Van felt himself once again regaining consciousness. He was wondering if it was going to be exactly like before, him waking up and finding himself in a prison just waiting for the torturing to come back to him. it wasn't that way this time. Van could feel sand underneath his fingertips meaning that he was out in the desert again.  
  
"I was so close," he told himself, this time he didn't know how long he had been out for. He hoped beyond hope that it wasn't for very long and that he had a chance to get back to the town before the wedding.  
  
Van opened his eyes to see the bright sun shining brightly down upon him. He shielded his eyes to look around but he found that there were no towns within his sight. It made it worse by the fact that he had no idea where he was at that moment.  
  
Van closed his eyes for a mere moment but the next moment that he opened them up, he found two pairs of eyes staring down at him. He jumped up fast and backed away before he realized who it was that he was facing at that moment. "Reese! Raven!" he yelled out of surprise.  
  
"Nice to see you too," muttered Reese a bit sarcastically. "You sure seemed to be in pretty rough shape. What happened to you?" asked Reese helping Van to his feet while Van was dusting the sand off of him.  
  
"It is a very long and a very tiresome story. One that I really don't feel like getting into, I don't even want to even think about it ever again," muttered Van finding that the pain was still very clear in his mind despite it only being a memory. "I am surprised to see you two. Haven't seen the two of you since the deathsaurer," said Van swaying a little but remaining standing. By the way that he was feeling, he guessed that some of his wounds reopened considering the amount of blood on his shirt.  
  
"Yeah, we just decided to get away from everything for a while," said Reese with a very strange smile that Van was not used to considering that at one point she almost never smiled at all.  
  
"You were lucky that we were coming this way when we did or you would be out here under the hot sun roasting to death. I couldn't let that happen because I haven't beaten you yet," said Raven with a smirk but something within Van told him that he was just joking.  
  
"How long ago was that the two of you found me? It is very important that I must know," asked Van finding it hard to stand on his own two feet and he ended up once again collapsing to his knees.  
  
"Actually we just found you. Your wounds were fresh when we found you so you probably weren't out here that long before came along," said Reese returning to her normal face much to Van odd relief, he wasn't used to seeing her smile.  
  
Van was very relieved to hear that it wasn't all that long that he had been here. He felt that maybe he would have an actual chance of getting back before the wedding happened. He figured that he would definitely need their help if he was going to succeed. He work up his courage and said, "I need your help." 


	7. chance

"What do you mean by you need some help? Also, what is it that you some help with?" asked Reese a little suspiciously because she wasn't sure why he was asking them for help after what they had done in the past.  
  
"You two are my only hope of getting there in time. Fiona is getting married soon to someone else because she thought that I had abandoned her for four years. The truth was that I was held captive and tortured for all that time," said Van finding that he was saying the one thing he refused to say a few minutes ago.  
  
Reese and even Raven were startled by what Van had just said. They never thought that something like that would happen to him of all people. "How the hell did that happen?" asked Raven trying to remain calm but it still startled him a little bit.  
  
"To tell the truth, I don't really understand how it happened myself at times. All I was doing was picking something up for Colonel Crougar and I was ambushed," said Van while thinking back to what had happened.  
  
Flashback  
  
Van was basically sprinted through the town that he had been sent to in order to pick up the object. He didn't want to waste any time, he wanted to get back as soon as he could, back to Fiona. He never got to tell her what he wanted to before they were interrupted. He wanted to get back to tell her that he was in love with her as well.  
  
Van ran into the small shop to see an elderly man sitting behind the desk. Van walked up quietly until he was right in front of the desk but the elderly mans back was turned to him and it appeared that he wasn't. "Excuse me," said Van in a quiet voice but the man didn't seem to hear him at all. 'Excuse," me Van repeated a little louder but yet again he received no response. "Excuse me!" Van yelled almost at the top of his lungs. Yet again he received no response from the man. Van got annoyed and reached out and tapped the man on the shoulder.  
  
The elderly man nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He spun around quickly holding his chest. "Don't sneak up on me like that! You could have at least announced that you were here! What are you trying to do, kill me?" he asked quickly.  
  
Van couldn't help but let off a small chuckle. "I tried calling you three times but you didn't even hear me at all," he said before he calmed down. "I am here to pick up a package," said Van but he looked at the man to see a disgusted look on his face.  
  
"You're here to pick your nose, disgusting. If you are going to do that then please go someplace else and do it. Just do it any place from here," said the old man while scrunching up his nose in disgust.  
  
Van smacked his hand on his forehead because of how senile the old man was being. "No! I am here to pick up a package, pack-age," said Van announcing it slowly so that the man would actually understand it this time.  
  
"Oh why didn't you say so earlier?" asked the old man with a smile causing Van to chuckle again. The old man finally got a good look at Van a second later and his eyes seemed to grow with recognition. "Ah, your Dan Flyheights boy aren't you?" asked the man with a toothless smile.  
  
"Uh, yeah," said Van wondering how he knew. 'How can he know my father when it is probably very likely that he can't even remember what he had to eat last night?' thought Van watching the man with a little amusement. He turned his head away for a second to look at some of the things around the place but when he turned back around the old man had disappeared.  
  
"You know," said the old man appearing behind Van causing Van to jump a few feet into the air. "I once had a few dealings with your father and your mother years ago. It is a terrible shame what happened to the two of them. They were very nice people. They gave me something though," said the man holding out a dusty package.  
  
Van couldn't help but wonder how it was that he managed to get it so quickly. "Um, thanks but I came here to pick something up for Crougar," said Van scratching the back of his head as he looked at the package wondering what was inside of it.  
  
"He sent you to pick this up. You specifically, because it was meant to be given to you, it is a gift from your parents only to be given at a specific time. It is a gift much like that knife that you wear," he said pointing to the knife.  
  
"This," said Van taking the knife off of his belt and looking at it closely. He saw the man nod while handing him the gift. Van set the knife down for a moment to grab the package and looked at it for a second.  
  
"I created the contents inside of the package myself for your father when he was younger and still dating your mother. When she died, he gave it to me to hold onto until you were in the same predicament that he was in at the time. He was in love as I am sure that you are in at this moment," he said and was confirmed when Van nodded his head. "Glad to hear that. Then I won't have any worries about giving this to you," he said with a smile.  
  
Van figured that he knew exactly what was inside the package so he didn't have to even bother to open it till later. "It's my mother engagement ring isn't it?" he said rather than asked.  
  
The old man just nodded his head at that moment. "I used to create stuff like that all the time as a business but my old hands can no longer make such things. This one had to be one of if not my finest creations," he said very proudly. "When you are ready to use it then I want you to use it but don't do it until you are positive that it is what you want," he said because he didn't want to see his creation put to waste.  
  
'Do I really want to get into something like this right now? I know I have fallen in love with Fiona but I am not completely sure that I would be ready for it,' Van told himself slightly confused on what to do.  
  
"I suggest that you take a bit of time to think about something like this," the old man said pushing Van towards the door and out of it before he could protest. "You won't get any thinking done by standing here," he said before closing the door leaving a confused Van outside.  
  
Van walked towards the blade liger. He wasn't sure what he was planning on doing. He didn't really want to take things too fast with Fiona. he just found out that he loved her. He quickly hopped into the blade liger and carefully put the package into a small compartment.  
  
"Oh no!" yelled Van realizing that he had left his father's knife back at the shop. "I can't leave it here," he yelled jumping out of the blade liger and running to grab it. He was nearly there before someone stepped into his path. The man wouldn't move and Van was getting impatient. He took a step forward only to be hit hard in the back of the head making him lose consciousness.  
  
End flashback  
  
"I didn't expect for something like that to happen and I was unprepared because I forgot my fathers knife. Four years. For four years I was constantly tortured living only with a hope that proved false," said Van sadly lying back against the sand.  
  
Raven and Reese seemed kind of stunned as they heard all that Van had told them about the day that he was captured. Although they thought of Van as their greatest rival, they still held some respect for him and his abilities.  
  
Raven knew what he had to do if he wanted to fight Van again. He wanted an opponent at full strength and not moping around because he lost someone. "Fine! I don't want to fight you when you are moping around anyways," said Raven as he turned around and walked towards his genobreaker.  
  
Van couldn't help but smile. 'Sure, Raven puts up a front but I actually think he cares a lot,' thought Van with a smirk as he watched Reese turn around and leave. He walked after them. "Um, how are we going to get there with only one zoid?" asked Van realizing the one problem with it all.  
  
Suddenly, Specula appeared out of nowhere and Reese got on her back as it took off. "That's how," muttered Raven hoping into the blade liger. "Lets just not talk because I don't feel like arguing the whole way there," he muttered when Van hopped into the genobreaker. The cockpit closed and the genobreaker took off into the sand at great speed.  
  
It felt very weird for Van to be in the cockpit of his rival's zoid, the zoid that he had faced in battle so many times before. 'As long as I can get there quickly then I would do anything,' Van thought with a determined look on his face.  
  
Moonbay, and Thomas jumped out of the gustav to be greeted by Fiona and Irvine since he arrived sooner then they were able to. Irvine had a look on his face that told them that something was wrong at that moment.  
  
"Moonbay, Thomas it is so good of you to finally get here," said Fiona with a smile as she walked up and gave both of them a hug. She had a smile on her face that told them that if Van had come would be different. It would both confuse her and make her feel bad if he came and nothing happened between them because she was still planning to get married. Or it would make it larger if she got back together with Van. She always seemed to have this special type of smile whenever she was with Van.  
  
"Sorry we're late," said Moonbay as they started to walk to the hotel. She fell behind a little bit along with Irvine as Fiona led the way. "So, did Van show up?" asked Moonbay figuring that she already knew the answer.  
  
"No," said Irvine in a worried voice. "I am kind of worried because he should have gotten here a few days ago. I only got here yesterday and he wasn't here. Fiona doesn't know yet so we will wait for a little while for him to show up. It is best for him to see her," said Irvine as they walked far enough behind so Fiona wouldn't hear.  
  
"I already know that. How is it that he can't be here yet when he was piloting a freaking storm sworder?" asked Moonbay trying to think of all possibilities for this situation.  
  
"I have some sort of feeling like he did get here but he never was able to see Fiona. Van tends to have a one track mind so when he gets an idea in his head, he will try to go through with it at any cost. I am worried though, what if he doesn't turn up until it is too late?" said Irvine letting the worry go through his voice.  
  
"I want Van and Fiona to get together as much as you do because I have this strange feeling about Fiona's fiancé. It is something I have had ever since I first met him but I can't quite place what it is," said Moonbay quietly so that anyone that was trying to listen in wouldn't hear them.  
  
"The wedding is tomorrow. We will give Van that much time before we just go ahead and tell Fiona what it is that we know. She will probably hate us afterwards but I feel it is something we have to do," said Irvine as if it was the simplest thing to do.  
  
The genobreaker was fast but Van felt that it wasn't fast enough. It took very close to a day for them to get back to where Van had been forcefully taken from. He was beginning to have some serious thoughts as to why they did what they did back then.  
  
Van was wondering what he was going to say when he saw Fiona. He thought he had it figured out before but now he didn't know what to do. 'What if she rejects me and still gets married. I won't stand in her way as long as who she is marrying is good for her,' thought Van sadly.  
  
He was pulled from his thoughts when the genobreaker came to a sudden halt throwing Van forward a bit as Raven didn't even say a word to him. "What's going on?" asked Van straightening himself up a bit.  
  
"Nothing, just a minor bit of interference," said Raven while looking through the monitors at about a dozen zoids blocking their path into town. Raven didn't even seem to hold any type of emotion on his face while he watched them.  
  
A screen popped up revealing a face Van had seen multiple times during his time of being captured. "You are not going a step further Van Flyheight," said a bald man with a scar just under his eye to the end of his jaw. Van had given him it actually when he was first brought there.  
  
"You again?" growled out Van as he narrowed his eyes dangerously at the man he had come to loath a long time ago. "Why are you blocking me from getting in? It is clear that you don't want me to get in there so why is it that you are doing this?" he growled with clenched fists.  
  
"We are trying to kill someone and we can't have you interfering with it," said the man with a smirk on his face as his saber fang took a few steps towards the unmoving genobreaker.  
  
This made Van worry that they might be after Fiona. It would make sense too. They get him out of the way so that Fiona main protector wasn't there to protect her. "If you harm Fiona in any way then I swear I will make you sorry that you ever crossed my path," he said before he shoved past Raven and jumped out of the cockpit.  
  
"We want nothing to do with that stupid girl. It is her fiancé that we are actually after," said the man but Van had a very serious time trying to believe him at that moment because something in his words proved false in Van's mind.  
  
"I don't have time for this!" yelled Van as he made and attempt to run past as many of the zoids as he could. He nearly got stomped on a few times by some of the zoids but thanks to Raven he managed to get by because as a zoid was about to hurt him, Raven came in a the last second and took them down helping to clear out Van's path so he didn't have to face too many obstacles.  
  
The bride to be was happy, the groom was happy, the friends... weren't happy. 'Where the hell can he be? If he doesn't show up in the next ten seconds then I am going to tell Fiona myself,' Moonbay told herself since the wedding had already started. 'Maybe I should have stopped it before it began,' she told herself as she listened to the priest talking.  
  
"If there is anyone that feels that these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace," said the priest as he looked over the number of people in the room looking for any objections.  
  
Van still hadn't shown up so Moonbay decided to take things into her own hands. Moonbay took a step forward from her maid of honor position making many others look at her. "Fiona, I can't let you do this. There are so many things that you don't know that you should. You should be marrying Van, not him," said Moonbay earning her even more stares.  
  
Fiona just looked at Moonbay with a slight look of hurt in her eyes. She thought her friends would support her through this. "How can you say that Moonbay? You know what he did. How can you say those things after what he did?" Fiona nearly yelled.  
  
"The reason I said this is because..." said Moonbay but she was unable to get the last little bit out of her mouth as the doors to the place opened and slow steps were heard but Fiona either didn't hear or just didn't want to look. "Look Fiona," said Moonbay pointing towards the door as she saw Van walk into the room. 


	8. truth

Fiona suddenly became very afraid of what she was going to see if she turned around. She looked to her side to see Matt scowling at the person that had walked into the room. Turning only slightly, she saw Irvine and Thomas with thankful looks in their eyes. Then finally, she looked at the one person she both hated and loved at that moment. The one who still had a part of her heart and wouldn't let go. 'How could he,' thought Fiona angrily.  
  
Moonbay figured that things weren't going to turn out good if this tension continued on. She looked at Van as he slowly limped a bit towards Fiona. She could tell he was still hurt but nothing as bad as he had been when they had found him. "Things aren't as they seemed Fiona," whispered Moonbay but she was sure that no one heard her because everyone's attention was on Van.  
  
Van slowly made his way forward without saying a word but keeping his eyes one Fiona. She looked absolutely gorgeous in her wedding dress but he wished she were wearing it for him rather than someone else.  
  
Van stopped when only a few steps away from Fiona. He was still unable to find the words to say to Fiona at that moment. He had waited for nearly four years and now he was standing with Fiona only a few steps away.  
  
Matt knew exactly who it was that was standing before them at that moment. He had seen many pictures so he knew that it was Van Flyheight. An anger came up in him and before anyone realized what happened he stepped forward and punched Van in the stomach. He would have done more but Moonbay held him back.  
  
Fiona was seriously tempted to step forward and slap Van as well but as she watched him and a piece of her heart seemed to constrict in pain as she watched him on the ground holding his stomach.  
  
"Why don't you stand and say something or fight back?" Matt taunted as he let out some of the anger that had built up over time. Moonbay continued to hold him back before Van was hurt any more.  
  
"Its not that he won't fight back, it's that he can't fight back!" yelled Moonbay and she watched Fiona, as she seemed a little startled by Moonbays words. Fiona turned her head slightly towards Moonbay in questioning so Moonbay figured that she should explain. "He's hurt Fiona. That is the way he was when we found him," she said with a little softness in her voice as she let go of Matt since he had calmed down.  
  
"What?" asked Fiona very quietly as she turned to look at Van. She saw him still in the same position holding his stomach. She then saw something that made her worry even more. A small amount of blood fell down the hand that Van was using to clutch his stomach. All her anger seemed to be slowly fading away as she slowly took a step forward and knelt down towards him.  
  
"Perhaps it would be better if he told you everything," said Moonbay taking a few steps forward to held Van up as she led him back through the door and to a small room where they could quietly talk without anyone listening in.  
  
Fiona got up and followed but Matt stopped her. "Fiona, what about the wedding?" he asked but he received a glare from a number of people who knew that something was wrong.  
  
Fiona turned on him a little angry. "My friend is hurt and all you can think about is the wedding?" she asked as she turned and followed after Moonbay and soon disappearing through the door and into the room. Fiona didn't know why she was being so forgiving with Van after what happened but something told her that she needed to listen to what he had to say.  
  
Moonbay watched as Fiona quietly walked into the room as she set Van in a chair while he was still clutching his stomach whose bleeding had slowed down greatly so far. Moonbay gave a sigh before she stood up. It would probably be best if I just left the two of you so you can talk," Moonbay said before she walked out of the room.  
  
It was a deadly silence that filled the room after Moonbay had left. Both of them were unsure of what to say to the other at that moment. It was a good while before Fiona worked up enough strength to say what she had on her mind. "Why did you come here?" she asked a little more coldly than she meant to say it.  
  
"I-I'm sorry Fiona. I didn't want things to turn out the way that they did. I wanted more than anything to come back but I was not able to because of problems," said Van quietly not looking up towards Fiona because of fear of what she would do. He couldn't blame her for being angry but he hoped that she would listen to him before she did anything.  
  
Fiona looked off to the side not looking at Van either. "Some excuse," she said before completely turning her back towards him crossing her arms over her chest. She kept a strong persona but she felt like crying at that moment. Seeing van was hurting her more than she thought it would.  
  
"Fiona, please look at me. I have to show you something," said Van and was glad when she slowly turned around. "Look at this Fiona," said Van lifting his shirt slightly. He saw Fiona blush a little and almost look away until she noticed what it was that he was showing her.  
  
"Oh my god," said Fiona lifting her hand to her mouth in shock as she noticed all of the scars that were all over his chest and back. It made her very scared to even think about the ways in which he got them. "How did that happen?' she asked figuring that that was what caused him not to come back.  
  
"I don't know what it is you saw that caused you to lose faith in me but it was all a lie. I wanted to come back more than anything. I tried to be as quick as I could because there is something that I didn't get to say. Before I could come back, I was ambushed and taken captive. For four years I was held captive and tortured constantly. Most would have died from it long before but I held a hope that seemed to prove false," he said looking away.  
  
Fiona didn't know if what she was hearing was right or not. Her beliefs shattered once again when she finally learned the truth about what had happened to Van. 'Why couldn't I see that something had to be wrong about all of this," said thought as she let a few tears roll down her face. She didn't know what compelled her but she rushed forward and took Van into a small hug.  
  
Van was very content to just remain where he was but he knew it was wrong and sadly separated from her warm embraces. He had something to say but he didn't care if it was wrong to say or not because he held them in for four years and he knew that he wouldn't be able to hold them in anymore. "I know this may be wrong to say because you are getting married but my one hope during that whole time was that I would get free and come back to you, and that I could tell you what I didn't get to tell you before I left. To tell you that I loved you like you said that you loved me," he spoke softly and Fiona seemed in shock by it.  
  
Fiona's heart quivered a bit in her chest upon hearing the three words that she wished to hear all of those years ago. It was far too late for them though and she knew that. There was someone right outside the door waiting for her and she had promised to marry him. "I don't know what to say Van," said Fiona with a soft tone to her voice. She found that she could no longer hate him like she thought she would for a while.  
  
"You don't have to say anything. What you decide to do is your choice. I came because I really wanted to just talk to you and get these things that I wanted to say for so long off of my chest. I don't think I can stay though. You promised to marry him. It would be too painful for me to watch you get married to someone else. I will support whatever you do though," said Van standing up and walking towards Fiona.  
  
Fiona looked down at the floor because she felt she couldn't look at Van. When he walked up to her he placed his finger under her chin to lift her head so she was looking at him. She was scared at that moment, scared of what he would do.  
  
Van lowered his head and captured her lips in one last kiss before he left. It was wrong and he knew it but he didn't care at that moment. He wanted something to remember her by. The way that he kissed her seemed even better than when they first kissed, and she didn't seem to be stopping it either. He broke away after a much needed breath of air. "I'm sorry," he said before he turned and walked quickly out the door leaving a stunned Fiona in the room.  
  
Fiona's mind was a complete mess at that one moment. She was so out of it that she didn't even hear Moonbay enter the room until she felt Moonbay's hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see Irvine, Thomas, and Matt standing behind her as well. Fiona gave them a small smile, which caused a small smile to appear on only Matt's face.  
  
"Well then, why don't we just start this wedding over from the beginning," Matt said with a smile despite the frowns that Irvine, Moonbay, and Thomas had on their faces at that moment. They seemed to know exactly what was going on with Fiona at that moment but it was her choice to go through with this.  
  
Fiona just nodded her head but she kept a small smile on her face that people could tell was forced. She was very confused but she did promise him that she would marry him after all even if Van seemed to take away more of her heart when he left.  
  
Everyone filed out of the room and once again took their places once again. Moonbay couldn't help but feel disappointed that Fiona didn't follow Van so that they could be together. She took the position that she had been standing at. "You shouldn't do anything that you don't want to do Fiona," she whispered to Fiona before she walked down the aisle like before and took her position next to where Fiona would stand a few seconds from then.  
  
Fiona just stood there behind the doors doing some thinking before she had to go out and become Matt's wife. She was having some serious doubts at that moment. 'This doesn't feel right but I did make a promise,' thought Fiona sadly. "That's right, a promise," she said as a hint of a true smile crossed her face.  
  
Moonbay couldn't help but look away as the sound of wedding music started to play. She knew that this wasn't right for either Van or Fiona. They had gone through so much and they deserved to be together. She looked up when she heard slight gasps. She didn't see why though. Then again, she didn't see anything, or anyone.  
  
Van looked through the blade liger very sadly looking for the package that he had placed in it. He may not have been able to use it but it still meant a lot to him. It wasn't anywhere though. He figured that Fiona hadn't seen it because then she might have not of lost faith in him back then. Someone else must have taken it and that didn't make him feel too good because it belonged to his mother. Van hung his head a bit but then he heard footsteps behind him.  
  
"Looking for something Van?" came Fiona's lovely voice from behind him causing him to turn around very fast to see her standing the with a calm yet happy smile upon her face. She was wearing her normal clothes at that moment. He wasn't sure how she could have gotten out of the dress so quickly but it didn't matter to him.  
  
"It's the package that I was sent to pick up when I was taken captive. It was for me and not Crougar. It also means a lot to me though. By the way, why aren't you back there getting married? You did promise to marry him," he said curiously but kind of happy.  
  
"I figure that while it is true that I did promise to marry him, I also made a promise to you before I even met him. I also just don't have the feelings for him that I had for you," she said with a true smile while taking a few steps towards Van. She then wrapped her arms around him in a comfortable hug. "You're really here aren't you?" she asked figuring this had to be some sort of a dream that she would wake up from at any moment.  
  
Van was surprised at first from the hug but he slowly wrapped his arms around Fiona and laid a kiss on her forehead. In answer to her question he lightly pinched her and then laughed. "See? I am still here, this is not a dream although it is something that I have dreamed of for so many years since I was forcefully separated from you," said Van enjoying the feel of her once again in his arms. He only seemed to grip a little tighter out of fear that it might actually be a dream and he would wake up in his cell ready to be tortured.  
  
Although she wasn't too happy about him pinching her, she was happy that this wasn't a dream. Even before she found out what actually happened, she had dreams like this before despite the pain that went through her heart because of him.  
  
"Lets get away for a while Fiona. Just the two of us," Van whispered into her ear. To just be alone with her for a while is all that he could dream about before now. Now that he was with her, he intended to make every moment of it worth all that he had gone through.  
  
Fiona looked up with a bright smile on her face as she nodded her head enthusiastically. "Nothing would make me happier," she said wrapping her arms tightly around him. "I love you Van," she whispered with her forehead pressed against his chest.  
  
The sound of those words on her lips made Van happier than he had ever been. He may have heard her say it before but it felt like it had so much more meaning to it than it did when she said it the first time. "I love you too," he whispered back into her ear. "Come one," he said grabbing her hand. He led her towards the blade liger but they were stopped by the voice of Irvine.  
  
"Ahhhhh, how sweet," said Irvine causing the two of them to turn towards him and his smirking face. "Before you go, there is something I have to talk to about Van, alone," he said and saw the disappointed look on their faces but Van did reluctantly walk towards him leaving Fiona a few steps behind.  
  
"What is it Irvine, because I am in a bit of a hurry right now and you had better not do anything to waste of any of my time," Van threatened Irvine because it pained him to have Fiona so close yet not being able to hold her.  
  
"Don't worry it won't take long. I just thought that you might want to bring this along with you," said Irvine holding out the package that Van had been given when he was kidnapped. "Crougar gave it to me before we left to give to you if I found you," said Irvine keeping it low enough so that Fiona couldn't see it. He knew what it was, and hoped that it would be used soon.  
  
Van quickly took it and slipped it into his pocket hoping that Fiona didn't see it. "Thanks Irvine. This means a lot to me," said Van giving him a high five before he turned around walked to Fiona and wrapped his arms around her before getting into the blade liger and running off before Irvine could say anymore.  
  
Irvine couldn't be happier for his best friend and the person he thought of as his little sister. He had a smile on his face that was soon shattered when he saw the blade liger suddenly get hit very hard in the side by something.  
  
Van slowly got the blade liger back to its feet. He thought for sure that Raven would have taken care of anyone that was trying to stop them. He looked around for the source of the attack but all her found was one dark red lightning saix very similar to Irvine's. He heard Fiona gasp from behind him and turned to her. "What's wrong Fiona?" asked Van seeing her hurt look on her face.  
  
"That's Matt's zoid," said Fiona quietly and it was confirmed when a screen popped up to show his face. "What's going on Matt? Why did you just attack us?" asked Fiona trying to find out the reason behind her ex-fiancés behavior at that moment.  
  
"Shut up Fiona," he said with a very stern face. "Didn't I give you everything? I gave you a love greater than he could have ever given you, I would do anything for you and you just run off on our wedding day," he said making an emphasis on the word wedding.  
  
"It was you wasn't it?" asked Van with a scowl confusing Fiona. "You were the one that ordered me to be kidnapped," said Van causing another gasp to come from Fiona making her look towards Matt asking if it was true or not. All they received was a laugh.  
  
"Can't get anything past you can I?" he asked with a loud laugh. "Yes, it is true. I was the one that ordered it all. I am curious as to how it is that you found out about it?" said Matt with a smirk.  
  
"Simple it is something that bald guy said. 'We want nothing to do with that stupid girl. It is her fiancé that we are actually after,'" said Van trying but not making a very good impression of the man. "I thought it was strange that they took me when I didn't even know you at the time. Maybe you should have come up with a better story," he said but with a serious face.  
  
"Power is everything you know. Having the power of a zoidian at my disposal would have done wonders and then having children with zoidian powers would have been better. I was at the party that night. I saw what went on between the two of you and I knew I would have to get you out of the way to get to Fiona. I was so close too, but then you had to show up and take away the woman that promised to be mine," he growled out revealing everything since they already knew the truth.  
  
Fiona was furious that he was just using her during the entire time that they were together. If they weren't in any zoids she would of strangled him but Van was there to calm her down a bit at that moment. "I made a promise to Van long before I ever promised to marry you. No, I made the promise to someone that is anything besides you, someone that was not real," she spat out at him.  
  
"If that is your choice then so be it. This time I won't let him live just for your sake. He will die and you along with him," he snarled out as he prepared for the battle with his super fast zoid. He had done so many modifications to it that it was even faster than Irvine's lightning saix. He was a little overconfident at that moment that he would win the battle.  
  
Van prepared to get the blade liger moving but he found that he was unable to move it even close to full speed. "What the," said Van looking the computer over. What he saw didn't reassure him too much. One of the front legs was so badly damaged by the surprise attack that it was almost inoperable at that moment. "Damn it," said Van as the blade liger was rammed in the side by the super high-speed zoid.  
  
"Van, just stay calm. The blade liger may not be in the best shape to fight but I am sure that you will be able to think of something to get us out of this," said Fiona as she placed a comforting hand upon his shoulder.  
  
Van looked out of the canopy as he watched the red lightning saix circle around them like an animal after his prey. He looked out further and saw Irvine and Thomas already out and ready to help the two of them. He didn't want anyone else to get involved. This was his and Fiona's fight. "Irvine, Thomas. Stay back, this is our fight," warned Van and then shut off all communications before they could even respond.  
  
Van somehow managed to dodge one attack but he didn't know how. An idea suddenly popped up in his head. He was well aware of the entire area's geography and he was hoping that he could use it. "Fiona, I have a plan but it could be very dangerous. I want to know if you will be up to it even if it will put us in danger," said Van waiting for her reply.  
  
"I trust in you more than anything Van. I somehow forgot that overtime while you were gone. Actually, now that I think about it, it was really only after I met Matt that I really forgot about it," she said realizing that while she was with him, he had been putting bad thoughts within her head. 'It's all his fault,' she thought bitterly.  
  
"I get the point. Thanks for having confidence in me until that happened," he said with a small smile. He got the blade liger moving to the best of its ability at the moment. He knew at their current speed that they wouldn't be able to escape him but that was the plan at that moment.  
  
A very powerful jerk hit the side of the blade liger harder than ever before. It flung the two occupants around the lot. Unfortunately for Van, His arm hit against the computer very hard and there was a distinct cracking sound at that moment filled with cries of pain.  
  
Van clutched his now broken arm in pain. "Damn it, no, I can't stop," he said while using his good hand to grip the controls. He couldn't control it with only one hand though. He then felt the warmth of a hand on his as another went to the other side. He looked to see Fiona with a sad smile on her face. He couldn't help but smile at this. "Thank you Fiona," he whispered.  
  
The blade liger finally came to a stop at the edge of a deep chasm a number of miles out of the city. They were trapped there because Matt was on the opposite side of them. 'Talk about being trapped between a rock and a hard place,' thought Van with a laugh. He looked directly at the red zoid that was perfectly ready to attack and throw them into the chasm at any moment.  
  
"Quite a predicament you are in here. I think that now it is time to end this. If I can't have her then you won't have her either," he said as the red zoid sprung forward into the air directly towards the blade liger.  
  
"Just what I was waiting for," said Van moving forward and bending the blade liger as the red zoid came down directly above it. The blade liger came up hard hitting away the red lightning saix.  
  
The red zoid went flying down the chasm with the blade liger watching on the edge. It didn't go down easily though. Before it was out of sight it fired its guns at the cliff breaking it apart and sending the blade liger down with it.  
  
Moonbay and Irvine came to watch the battle that Van wanted to do alone. They saw all that happened including when the blade liger fell off as well. "Van! Fiona!" yelled Moonbay running to look down but she saw nothing there. 


	9. dead or alive

Moonbay sat behind a computer typing away with everything that she had. All she came up with was very little. Nothing. Or things that she already knew. It was driving her to the brink of insanity.  
  
"Eleven months, eleven freaking month!" she yelled slamming her fist down upon the desk that the computer was situated on. "Where the hell are they!" she yelled again as she looked at the blank screen that she hoped would turn up clues to their location either dead or alive but she hoped it wasn't dead.  
  
Eleven months had passed since Van and Fiona fell off the cliff. Nobody has seen or heard from them that many already believed that they were dead. Moonbay knew not to put it past them. They thought the same about Van until he turned up in the horrible shape that he was in. She refused to believe it and Irvine was exactly the same.  
  
Instead of looking for the two of them the same way that Moonbay was, Irvine took a more direct approach to finding them. It got him in trouble a lot of the time because he ended up getting in a lot of fights. 'Who would have thought that Van had so many enemies,' Moonbay could remember Irvine once said a few months before. Last time she saw him a day before, he came back pretty bruised up. That was where he was now, getting some treatment for it.  
  
They found Matt or at least what was left of him and his zoid. It was a very gruesome scene. The fall was much larger than they anticipated but what shocked them was that the blade liger was nowhere to be seen. That gave them hope but then there was also the problem that Matt didn't fall all of the way, there was still a large fall left that they couldn't get to the bottom of. That made it worse but Moonbay refused to believe that they were dead. She knew that Van would have some way of getting out of the situation they were in.  
  
"Ouch, damn it! Take it easy," yelled Irvine while a doctor bandaged his very seriously injured arm. There was a huge gash on his arm but it had long since stopped bleeding. It still hurt like hell though.  
  
"You are such a whiner. This isn't even all that bad. I have seen far worse then this and he didn't complain as much as you are now. So just sit down shut up and let me do my job!" the doctor was getting annoyed with all of the complaining.  
  
"How exactly can it get any worse than this?" grumbled Irvine as he leaned against his good arm but winced when he accidentally touched a small cut just under his left eye. He was beginning to wish he had just fought them in zoids rather than hand-to-hand but he didn't get a chance to get to his lightning saix. He did end up beating all of them though.  
  
"Easy, if there was any more damage to his arm then it is very possible that he would have ended up losing any use he had with his left arm. Sure he had other injuries but none were as bad as that. I don't even think he minded though. He seemed more occupied with the beautiful woman that was with him; I would be too. They made a fit when I tried to get him alone to fix his arm," he said with a slight chuckle.  
  
Irvine couldn't help but chuckle as well. "I can imagine that the two of them must have been more deeply in love than anyone else I know. Well, maybe not. I know two that went through so much just to be with each other. We lost them though and now we are wondering if they are alive or not," said Irvine sadly.  
  
"So you think that they are either dead or just trying to avoid you?" asked the doctor with a chuckle. "The one I treated that I told you earlier, they seemed like they wanted to get away from society as well. Didn't stay long. They were in, and out as quickly as they could. I would want to be alone to with a woman like her. If only I were a few years younger I would go for her as well. Lovely blonde hair pulled into a low ponytail, Crimson eyes, the marking on her forehead. I envy him," he said with a pout but anyone could tell that he was just fooling around.  
  
As soon as he heard that description, Irvine's thoughts immediately jumped to Fiona. Description wise, it sounded almost exactly like her. He knew that he had to make sure though. "The man that was with her. Did he have spiky black hair with a rattail in the back? About the tall?" asked Irvine putting a hand up to where he remembered Van being as tall to him as. He was hoping beyond hope that it was actually them because he was tired of looking and he actually missed them.  
  
"Yes, I think so, his hairs wasn't too well kept at that moment but it looked like it had fallen from a spiky hairstyle," the old man said he then noticed the smirk that was forming on Irvine's face.  
  
'Got them,' he thought with a smirk. "Listen, I was wondering if you could tell me where they went?" asked Irvine trying to be as nice he could but all he received from the doctor was a shaking of the head. "Why not?" he asked getting slightly annoyed.  
  
"It is a doctors responsibility in keeping his patients files confidential. So I am sorry but there is no way that I..." he started but he couldn't finish because Irvine brought out the guardian force badge. He hated to admit it but he was stuck with them. "Oh, now that you put it that way... no," said the doctor with a smirk.  
  
"Then what do you say about this?' asked Irvine with a smirk that didn't really make the poor old doctor feel too comfortable. "He has gone missing a few months ago and I need to find him and you are going to help me," said Irvine, he didn't care if he had to do this illegally; he was going to find them no matter what I took.  
  
"Argh!" groaned Moonbay as she slammed her fists down on the table after yet another failed search "Why is it that we can't find our own two best friends? Could they really be... dead?" she asked while she was close to being on the verge of tear out of both frustration and sadness.  
  
"Quit whining Moonbay. It doesn't really suit you normally tough personality," said Irvine walking into the room with a smirk on his face. "We can never stop looking for them and you know that," he said sternly.  
  
Moonbay could only stare at him in shock because he seemed so calm about something. "What the hell are you smiling at? It isn't like we haven't been able to find anything!" yelled Moonbay trying to take all of her frustration out on Irvine.  
  
"Humph, who ever said I didn't find anything out?" asked Irvine with a smirk as Moonbay's head shot up to look at him. He felt like he could tease her a little bit with it but he was in a hurry. "I didn't get any specific detail but apparently two people that looked like Van and Fiona were last seen heading eastwards about ten months ago, it would be close to the same time that they disappeared. It doesn't mean anything though. There might be a chance that it might not be them, so don't get your hopes up," said Irvine but he had this good feeling like it was really them. He was not going to think negatively because as some say, anything that can go wrong will go wrong.  
  
Moonbay was happy that they at least had something to go on and she also was feeling very optimistic about all of it. she had a gut feeling like it could very possibly be them and she was not going to let go of it until they were positive that they were wrong and Moonbay doesn't settle for being wrong.  
  
"Well, what are you waiting for? The longer we wait the more time they will have to get away from us," said Irvine trying his best to be able to get moving as soon as possible he was up for a little vacation as it was so he couldn't wait to get away.  
  
"Yeah!" yelled Moonbay jumping up and down for joy while Irvine just shook his head with silent laughter. 'Van and Fiona did a good job hiding to keep away from being seen by others, but not good enough,' thought Moonbay with a victorious grin.  
  
The two of them left almost immediately. They wasted little time in heading in the direction that Irvine had pretty much forced out of the old doctor. He felt bad about it but he also thought that it was for a good cause.  
  
"Irvine, what makes you think that they didn't move in a different direction?" asked Moonbay from the gustav to Irvine in his lightning saix. It was a very good question that had been bugging her from the beginning.  
  
"I honestly have no clue if they are even still there after all of this time. It is the only lead that we have and with hope, we can only hope that they didn't make too many moves in different directions. I hope that maybe someone would have seen them and can tell us what we need to know of their location," said Irvine sadly looking towards the horizon.  
  
"I guess that you are right about that. Listen, there is a town up ahead, I want to stop there to look around before we go any further," said Moonbay turning the gustav slightly so that it faced in the direction of the town before she got moving a little faster to get there faster. Before they were going slightly slow so that they didn't miss a clue to use but they didn't see any and it was getting dark anyways.  
  
Irvine pulled up a map in the lightning saix to find out what town it was that they were coming up to. When he saw the name he could have sworn that he had heard about it before but he wasn't sure where. 'Hm, Ruby town, where have I heard that name before?' he asked himself while rubbing his chin. He was so deep in thought that he didn't realize that he had fallen a good deal behind Moonbay.  
  
"Irvine!" screamed Moonbay knocking him back to his senses and he rushed to catch up to her. Her voice sounded very scared and he wondered what it was that she yelled out to him for.  
  
It was then that he realized where he had heard of this town. A very large portion of the town was completely decimated. He remembered about ten and a half months ago he saw a report that described the event that took place here. The town was attacked and explosion occurred that killed all that were in the area.  
  
"What happened here Irvine?" asked Moonbay in a shaky voice and Irvine reluctantly told her the entire story according to what he had read. She was shocked by this and saddened even more to hear of all of the deaths that had occurred as a result of some idiot.  
  
The two of them hopped out of their zoids and started to walk into the town to see that it was very close to empty. "Ah, it is good to be able to see visitors once again," said someone that looked to be a priest. He had a sad expression on his face as he approached the two of them. "Ever since the incident that occurred, no one has bothered to come here anymore," he said while looking towards the ground.  
  
"We are sorry about what happened to this place. It is horrible that this had to happen," said Irvine with a frown as he started to walk around the town. He didn't know anyone that lived here but he felt it in him that he should pay some sort of respect to those that died before they got back on the road to look for their friends.  
  
Irvine and Moonbay walked into a graveyard and were not really surprised when they saw the amount of graves that were scattered all throughout the place. A testament to ones own flaws of being a human that craved power. The ones responsible may have been caught and punished properly but that could never return the dead back to life.  
  
"Many bodies couldn't even be recovered form the explosions so a number of these graves are empty. So many children were caught in the blast as well. How could this have happened?" the priest asked covering his face with his hands.  
  
"I don't know," muttered Moonbay as she stared at all of the tombstones that were scattered all over the ground. Something caught her eye at that moment and she wondered off from the small group. She couldn't help but stare at many of the names that were written on all of the tombstones and the year that they were born and died. Many of them were so small of a time distance that it hurt to look at. She came to one specific though, "Irvine!"  
  
When Irvine heard his name called he immediately rushed towards Moonbays side to see her shaking all over. She was staring at something and when he stepped forward to get a look he knew exactly why. It was a tombstone that read, 'Van Flyheight and Fiona Alisi Lynette'. 


	10. a new life

The shock of it all finally got to Moonbay even more and she collapsed onto her hands and knees. 'No! They can't really be. This can't be happening. They aren't dead!' Moonbay thought trying to find some relief but it did her little good because of all of the evidence that was placed before her.  
  
"No," was all that Irvine managed to get out of his mouth. All the amount of searching, all of the hope that they had when they learned something was now gone just when they finally had a bit of hope to go on.  
  
"Oh yes. I remember these two," said the priest sadly as he approached the two grief stricken friends. "I got to talk with them before the incident occurred. They had so many dreams for the future. A talk of marriage, maybe starting a family, these were the type of things that they seemed very happy to talk about. We didn't get to talk long before the incident occurred. They knew it was dangerous but they made sure that they got to help as many people as they could but by doing this they got caught in the explosion. It truly is a pity that it had to happen to two such wonderful people," he said with such sad eyes.  
  
Later that night, Moonbay and Irvine found a place to stay at because they didn't feel like leaving so soon. The two finally got to talking about the events that they hoped didn't happen.  
  
"Why exactly did this have to happen Irvine? They were able to survive that huge fall but then they die not too long after while trying to protect people. I know it is the way that Van would have liked to die, by protecting people, but neither of them deserved this sort of," said Moonbay casting her eyes down towards the ground.  
  
"I guess it is just in their nature to help people that are in trouble. They were able to do it together and I am sure that wherever they are, they are happy because of that," said Irvine walking towards Moonbay and placing a comforting hand onto her shoulder.  
  
"I know that but I wished I could have seen them get married like the priest said that they planned to do. I would have been happy to see those two together even if I didn't get to see the marriage. It is them as a family that I would have given anything to see but now that can't happen," said Moonbay as tears started to fall down her face. It wasn't like her to cry but she just couldn't seem to help it. Two of her very best friends were gone. "I really need to get out of here," said Moonbay before she walked out of the room because she felt she was in the need for some fresh air.  
  
The town was quiet of the few occupants that it had left. Night had long since fallen and a cool breeze was in the air as Moonbay headed to the one place that she never wanted to see any of her friends in. she didn't want to go there but she wanted to see if this had to be some sort of mistake. She just couldn't believe it until she knew for a fact that there wasn't a mistake and that this was all for real.  
  
"Are you to really gone?" Moonbay asked as she sat down against a tree that was right next to her two friends graves. The tree seemed to cast a bit of shade over the two graves so that the sun didn't fall directly on it.  
  
"Oh, hell Miss Moonbay. I am surprised to see that you up this late at night," said the priest as Moonbay lifted her head to see him walking down a small hill towards her. "Like I said before, I am terribly sorry about your friends loss. They died for a cause though, so you should be happy for them," said the priest trying to lighten the situation.  
  
"I am happy for them. I am just upset that they are gone. You said they had so many plans for the future and now neither of them will be able to experience it. I was hoping that I could see it as well," said Moonbay placing her hands over her face and rubbing her eyes a little.  
  
"So many died that day but many children and a few adults survived with your friends help. Quite a few of those children became orphans though. There weren't all that many became many families died together but the ones that did die were sent to an orphanage that is outside the city. All of them were the ones that your friends managed to save in the short time before the explosion occurred. They are being taken care of by two friends of mine. A young couple much like your friends. It is quite a happy environment down there," he said with a happy smile on his face.  
  
"I guess that there is a good chance that it would be. Except for the fact that everyone there has lost their parents and that people died to save their lived as well," said Moonbay a bit bitterly although she was happy for the kids.  
  
"Those that died for them gave them a future. The graves that you see before you were not placed there by me like most of the rest, they just appear here suddenly with no clue on who it was the put them there. Those that they are for saved the lives of the children and gave them a place that is away from all of the fighting. My friends are considered like parents to the young ones," he said hoping that it would ease her pain a little. "As much as I would love to keep talking, I must be going now. Good bye," he said before Moonbay could say anything and he walked away.  
  
Moonbay almost didn't catch it but there was something in his eye as he spoke. She could quite place what it is. 'I want to visit this orphanage and see all of those children that Van and Fiona sacrificed their lives for. Maybe they can help ease these painful feeling in my heart because of Van and Fiona's deaths,' thought Moonbay before she stood up and slowly walked towards the hotel that her and Irvine were staying at.  
  
"You're saying that you want to visit this orphanage that those children are staying at?" asked Irvine when Moonbay had returned and told him what she planned to do the next day.  
  
"Yeah, there are many children there that Van and Fiona saved with their lives. I want to be able to see them. Maybe they can tell us all about what Van and Fiona did for them before they died. I figure that may be the best way to start going on with our lives," said Moonbay with hope in her eyes that Irvine would decide to come with her to this place as well.  
  
Irvine seemed to think about it for a while before he made up his mind. "I would like to do that as well. The children must be very special little things especially with the sacrifice Van and Fiona made for them. I agree with you. It would be nice to see them before we head back," said Irvine causing a smile to appear on Moonbay's face. Before he knew it, Moonbay wrapped him into a hug causing him to blush a little.  
  
"Thanks a lot Irvine. This means a lot to me," said Moonbay with a bright smile. "I am going to get some sleep. I want to leave early so that we can spend a lot of time with them," said Moonbay before running towards the beds to get some sleep.  
  
The night went by very fast and by the next morning, Moonbay and Irvine were up and ready to get started almost as soon as the sun rose on the horizon. They both seemed serious at the time but they were actually very excited at the thought of seeing this place.  
  
The two didn't really go too fast or too slow in the movement from the town to the direction that they hoped the orphanage was. They couldn't get the exact position from the priest so they were just going on instinct.  
  
They could see something in front of them. It appeared to be a small forest on the edge of the desert between some mountains. They had seen it on the way there so they figured that it would be the best place to start looking because it appeared calm, peaceful, and a nice place to live.  
  
It almost seemed too easy to find when the two of them came across a nice cozy little house with at least three or four kids playing all around it. They all seemed to stop playing when they saw the gustav and the lightning saix approaching them, and then they all ran inside the house away from them.  
  
"There are fewer than I thought there would be but it did happen a little too quickly so I guess they couldn't get too many out," said Irvine surveying the area to see if there was anyone else but the place seemed to be completely empty at that moment.  
  
"I guess we will see in a few moments what Van and Fiona's work actually did for them. There could still be some inside the house where all of the others ran to," said Moonbay before coming to a stop a few meters away from the house.  
  
Little kids ran all around the cozy little house in a hurry for a reason that their guardians didn't know about. They looked around to see if they were playing some sort of game but it didn't appear to be that.  
  
A little girl that was probably no more than about three or four years of age came running up to one of them as this person was cooking for them. "Um... there are two zoids outside," said the little girl before she ran off in a bit of a hurry. They all remembered what had happened to their town a few months ago and they didn't want it to happen again to the new home. They liked it here, so they tried to hide and hoped that the zoids would go away.  
  
The first guardian was a very beautiful woman. She looked confused as the little girl ran off. She was lucky that there was a window not to far from where she was cooking so she walked over and peered out of it as she noticed two people walking towards the place. Her first reaction was one of shock before it was replaced by a small smile.  
  
"I wonder what the people that are taking care of these kids are like. They better be taking good care of these kids after all that Van and Fiona did to protect them," said Moonbay in a threatening voice.  
  
"By the way they seemed to be playing happily before we came, I can only assume that they are treated just fine. Now why don't we try to talk to them first," said Irvine before starting to walk towards the door.  
  
"Ok then, talk," came a voice out of nowhere causing Irvine and Moonbay to jump a little. They looked around very quickly. It was then that they noticed that there was still someone on the shaded porch just lounging around without a care in the world. They couldn't see the person's face but by the sound of the voice, it sounded like a man. The strangest thing was that the voice also sounded very familiar.  
  
Before either of them could say a word, the man stood up but his face seemed to remain hidden in the shadows and he walked over to the door and walked inside. "That was kind of rude," muttered Moonbay and stopped in her tracks.  
  
Before she could say anything else, the man stepped out of this house but this time his face wasn't covered by the shadows and it caused both Irvine and Moonbay to gasp out of shock at what they were seeing.  
  
"Van!" yelled Irvine and Moonbay in unison. They were shocked to see him there alive and well when they saw the grave as clear as day in the town. They weren't exactly sure how it was even possible.  
  
"W-where's Fiona? Is she here with you as well?" asked Moonbay hoping that her best friend was here as well. She looked at him and saw him smile and her heart soared knowing that they were both alive.  
  
"Well..." said Van before turning around and holding a hand out for someone to take it and Moonbay could only assume that it was Fiona. Van stepped aside and Fiona walked out onto the port and everyone but Van gasped. Not from seeing her but from something else they saw.  
  
"Fiona... you're fat," said a shocked Irvine before he ended up getting smacked over the head by the very powerful fists of Moonbay. He clutched the back of his head while Moonbay spoke.  
  
"She's not fat you idiot, she's pregnant!" Moonbay hissed out but she couldn't help but fall into a fit of laughter. There they were, the two people that just a day before they thought were dead but they were in fact alive and living the life they had talked about according to the priest. "How is this possible? We saw the graves with your names on them?" she asked quietly but she knew that Van and Fiona had both heard her.  
  
"We wanted to put our pasts behind us. Get rid of the things that brought us pain to that day. We made that as a start," said Fiona with a small smile on her face as she held her bulging stomach. She appeared to be very happy just standing there by Van.  
  
It was silent for a few seconds after that before Moonbay shouted out, "You jerks," at the top of her lungs. "You had us very worried and very sad when we saw that in the cemetery," she continued to yell while Irvine just laughed a little nervously.  
  
"We are sorry that we didn't tell you that we were alive. We just felt that we should get away from everyone for a while and just be together. Although things didn't go quite as we planned, we are very happy with how things turned out up to this day," said Van wearing a smile as he wrapped his arms around Fiona. "Why don't you two come in. I guess we have a lot to talk about," said Van leading the way in with Fiona following shortly behind him.  
  
Moonbay and Irvine seemed to stay put for a second before they too followed the happy couple inside. They didn't care anymore what Van and Fiona did. They were happy to see their friends alive, well, and happy with each other. That is the way it should have been from the beginning but there was a few bumps until they finally managed to get there. 


	11. Epilogue: storytime

The four kids were running all around the place. They had so much energy in them that it brought smiles to everyone's faces. The only four adults that was around just sat at a table and smiled as they watched the young kids. The kids could probably be no more then three to five years old.

"It is kind of sad to think that those little kids all lost their parents. Yet, they all seem so happy. You two sure did a great job in looking after them," Moonbay said with a happy smile and then a giggle when she saw one of them fall flat on his face. He just sucked it up though and continued to run after the rest of the children.

"There were originally a lot more of them but some have found some remaining family member or a new family to live with. Those four don't want to go anywhere though. They are happy and we won't force them to go anywhere until we feel that they actually want to. We don't mind though. they bring a lot of happiness to this place," Van responded.

The three of them watched as the sun started to set in the horizon and the kids finally seemed to calm down upon seeing it. "Time to come in!" Fiona yelled out to the four of them. They merely nodded their heads and ran inside.

Fiona walked away from the door and walked back to the table and sat down trying to be careful not to hit her stomach on anything. Her and Van had gotten married shortly after the incident in the town and she was pregnant about five minutes after that. She was happy just like the children though.

"So, when is this little one due? Do you know if it is a boy or girl yet?" Moonbay asked with a grin as she patted Fiona's stomach lightly. 'I am going to teach this kid so many things,' she thought with a grin.

"It should be any day now... I think. As for whether it is a boy or a girl... we don't know," Fiona said making Moonbay release a sigh. "We wanted to be surprised so we just decided to wait," she said with a smile while rubbing her stomach softly.

One of the kids ran up to the small group of adults. It was a young girl, only about three or four years old. She grabbed a hold of Van's hand and tugged on it. "Read us a story," she demanded still tugging without any success of moving Van.

Van just smiled and stood up allowing himself to be dragged by the little girl. Fiona smiled with how good he was with the kids. Good indication of what he would be like when they became parents.

"The little girl seemed really fond of him. Looks like you have a little bit of a competition here Fiona," Irvine said turning away from watching Van get dragged away with a grin on his face. "You had better watch out," he said with a laugh that was soon followed by Moonbay.

"The girl is really fond of him but then again, so are all the rest of the children. They look up to him in a fatherly sort of way. That is how I know that he will be a good father for our child. I wonder what it will be like when this child actually comes," Fiona said dreamily looking out the window towards the night sky.

* * *

Van was dragged into a room where the other three kids were already sitting and waiting for him to come. Van couldn't help but smile at how each of them looked very excited to hear the story. "So what will it be today?" Van asked with a smile and several of the kids held up a book that they wanted him to read.

Van then frowned. This was the part that he hated. If he chose one book over the other, then the rest would be disappointed. He had seen it many times before. He had an idea for today though and he hoped that the rest of the kids would be happy with the decision that he was making.

"I have an idea. How about I tell all of you an original story. One that I am sure that you have never heard of before?" Van asked with a smile and was glad when the rest of the kids nodded their heads in excitement.

"Does it have princesses in it?" the young girl that dragged him into the room asked happily. She seemed excited at the thought of it so Van thought he could improvise and add things into it that each of the kids would enjoy.

"Yes it does. It has princesses, knights, and an evil king," he said and he knew then that he had the attention of all of the kids in the room. There were two boys and two girls in the group; he made sure that his story would try to satisfy each of them.

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived in a beautiful land filled with flowers. She was a woman that was sad because many demands were placed upon her with her status. Yet she was happy because she was in love with her wonderful knight," Van said and smiled when he noticed that Fiona was standing in the doorway watching him with a smile on her face.

"The two of them were deeply in love. Unfortunately, some things were just not meant to be at first. In a neighboring kingdom to their land was a king who craved power more than anything. He knew of the princess and wanted her for himself. One day the young knight had to leave on a journey. The princess didn't want him to go but he knew he had to. They made promises to each other before he left on his journey. Their promise was that he would return and that she would wait for him. The evil king heard of this journey and captured the young knight," Van said and stopped as painful memories came back to him from that time.

"What an idiot getting captured like that," the eldest of the children, who was a boy named Mark said. Van groaned at his statement and he could distinctly hear the sounds of Irvine laughing his head off from off to the said of the room.

Van pulled himself together and continued with the story. "The knight spent years and year in a dark, cold dungeon for nearly four years. The princess felt betrayed that the knight had not kept his promise to her. The king used this to his advantage and used it to take the princess as his fiancée. The princess didn't know what really happened to her brave knight and agreed to marry the king," Van said making the kids gasp.

Van looked off to the side and saw Fiona with the sad expression upon her face as she too remembered that time of their lives. "What happened to the knight?" asked the little girl that dragged Van into the room; she went by the name of Megan.

The knight's friends had eventually broken into the king's fortress unknowingly thinking it was a bandit's hideout and found the knight inches away from death. They took him back to the kingdom and tried to heal him. One night he had just disappeared and went in search of his beloved princess in order to try and stop a wedding that he did not want to happen," Van said with a fake smile.

Fiona continued to listen to the story with great interest. There was a sad smile on her face as she subconsciously started to rub her swollen stomach. She had heard of what happened to Van before but it made her feel bad that she couldn't do anything to help him back then.

"He traveled for days and nights coming across friends, foes, and rivals alike in order to reach his destination. He finally reached it and was able to come face to face with an angry princess. He finally had the chance to explain himself and what had happened but by the end he felt that it was too late, that his chance for the princess was over," Van said with a weak smile.

"Why?" asked the youngest of the group which happened to be a very small girl just barely over the age of three. Van could tell that she and all the others were listening to him with a lot of attention and he kept going.

"You see... the princess was a woman of her word. She had promised that she would marry the king, even if it were true that she was still in love with her knight. The knight left feeling that he could not face seeing his beloved get married. The princess followed him though, for the same reason that she had almost got married. She remembered that the two of them had also made a promise to each other," Van said this time truly smiling without a bit of sadness.

"The two planned to run off together but they were soon stopped by the king who was in a fury because he had lost his fiancée to someone he had thought he had gotten rid of years before. In a great battle, the princess and the knight worked together and defeated the man that had brought pain to their life. They lived happily after that, the two got married and had many children," Van said chuckling a bit looking at them with a smile. The story was very true; the two of them did have a lot of kids. They were all like family to them even if they weren't blood related to them.

The children all cheered when Van came to the end of the story. "All right, I think that it is time for all of you to go to bed," he said and the cheering soon turned into that of many groans as all the children stood up and walked towards their rooms with their heads down.

Van started chuckling while shaking his head. He stood up and walked towards his wife and friends with a smile on his face. Fiona wrapped her arms around him almost as soon as he was within her reach and he immediately hugged her back. "Did you like my story?" he asked kissing the top of her head.

"It sounds very familiar. Now where have I heard it before," Fiona said giving off a look of mock concentration. She just chuckled and hugged him even tighter while not putting any pressure upon her stomach.

Irvine and Moonbay just rolled their eyes before leaving the room chuckling at how much affection they were showing each other. They were happy for them. They hoped that the two of them would be able to live out the rest of their lives in peace with their child and the children that they had around them. The two of them deserved to be happy.

"It should sound familiar since it is our story," he said although he knew that she already knew what his story was about. "The story will be able to continue though. It is never ending since our quest for happiness will soon reach the peak," Van said placing his hand upon her swollen stomach. "Oh!" he said pulling his hand away quickly.

Fiona giggled a little. "The little one kicked. I can tell right now that he will be just like his father," Fiona said with a smile. She didn't know what it would really be but they tended to fool around with pretend arguments like this. Sometimes she made it out to be a girl, and then others, a boy.

Van smirked knowing he was being challenged. "Or maybe, SHE will be just a beautiful and as smart as her mother," he said placing his hand back down upon her stomach feeling the baby kick some more.

Fiona just chuckled and decided to keep this going. "Do you doubt my judgment Van?" she asked wrapping her arms around his neck before pulling him in for a passionate kiss.

Van broke away from it with a smirk. "Do you really want me to answer that Fiona?" he asked thinking about her previous choice for a fiancé. The guy had turned out to be a psychopath whose only concern was having a zoidian that could father his children.

Fiona put on a small pout. "Ok, so maybe I made a bad choice when I chose Matt as a replacement for you. I just chose him because I was lonely and I guess I wanted to have someone around so that I could forget my pain. I have you now so I no longer have any reason to be sad," she said turning her pout into a smile.

"No, Fiona. WE have no need to be sad anymore. Whatever happens to us from now on, we will always have each other and soon our child to give us the support that we need to get through it all," He said kissing her forehead before taking her hand and going to their room. It was getting late and they just wanted to sleep for then and dream of what was to happen next.


End file.
